Transmit power control for physical random access channels

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to methods for adjusting the transmit power utilized by a mobile terminal for uplink transmissions, and to methods for adjusting the transmit power used by a mobile terminal for one or more RACH procedures. The invention is also providing apparatus and system for performing these methods, and computer readable media the instructions of which cause the apparatus and system to perform the methods described herein. In order to allow for adjusting the transmit power of uplink transmissions on uplink component carriers, the invention suggests introducing a power scaling for uplink PRACH transmissions performing RACH procedures on an uplink component carrier. The power scaling is proposed on the basis of a prioritization among multiple uplink transmissions or on the basis of the uplink component carriers on which RACH procedures are performed.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to methods for controlling the power in the uplinkin scenarios where an uplink transmission and a random access preamble,or a multiple random access preambles are transmitted in the sametransmission time interval. Furthermore, the invention is also relatedto the implementation/performance of these methods in/by hardware, i.e.apparatuses, and their implementation in software.

TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Third-generation mobile systems (3G) based on WCDMA radio-accesstechnology are being deployed on a broad scale all around the world. Afirst step in enhancing or evolving this technology entails introducingHigh-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and an enhanced uplink, alsoreferred to as High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), giving aradio-access technology that is highly competitive.

In order to be prepared for further increasing user demands and to becompetitive against new radio access technologies 3GPP introduced a newmobile communication system which is called Long Term Evolution (LTE).LTE is designed to meet the carrier needs for high speed data and mediatransport as well as high capacity voice support to the next decade. Theability to provide high bit rates is a key measure for LTE.

The work item (WI) specification on Long-Term Evolution (LTE) calledEvolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) and UMTS Terrestrial RadioAccess Network (UTRAN) is to be finalized as Release 8 (LTE Rel. 8). TheLTE system represents efficient packet-based radio access and radioaccess networks that provide full IP-based functionalities with lowlatency and low cost. The detailed system requirements are given in. InLTE, scalable multiple transmission bandwidths are specified such as1.4, 3.0, 5.0, 10.0, 15.0, and 20.0 MHz, in order to achieve flexiblesystem deployment using a given spectrum. In the downlink, OrthogonalFrequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based radio access was adoptedbecause of its inherent immunity to multipath interference (MPI) due toa low symbol rate, the use of a cyclic prefix (CP), and its affinity todifferent transmission bandwidth arrangements. Single-carrier frequencydivision multiple access (SC-FDMA) based radio access was adopted in theuplink, since provisioning of wide area coverage was prioritized overimprovement in the peak data rate considering the restrictedtransmission power of the user equipment (UE). Many key packet radioaccess techniques are employed including multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO) channel transmission techniques, and a highly efficient controlsignaling structure is achieved in LTE Rel. 8.

LTE Architecture

The overall architecture is shown in FIG. 1 and a more detailedrepresentation of the E-UTRAN architecture is given in FIG. 2. TheE-UTRAN consists of eNode B, providing the E-UTRA user plane(PDCP/RLC/MAC/PHY) and control plane (RRC) protocol terminations towardsthe user equipment (UE). The eNode B (eNB) hosts the Physical (PHY),Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), and Packet DataControl Protocol (PDCP) layers that include the functionality ofuser-plane header-compression and encryption. It also offers RadioResource Control (RRC) functionality corresponding to the control plane.It performs many functions including radio resource management,admission control, scheduling, enforcement of negotiated uplink QoS,cell information broadcast, ciphering/deciphering of user and controlplane data, and compression/decompression of downlink/uplink user planepacket headers. The eNode Bs are interconnected with each other by meansof the X2 interface.

The eNode Bs are also connected by means of the S1 interface to the EPC(Evolved Packet Core), more specifically to the MME (Mobility ManagementEntity) by means of the S1-MME and to the Serving Gateway (SGW) by meansof the S1-U. The S1 interface supports a many-to-many relation betweenMMEs/Serving Gateways and eNode Bs. The SGW routes and forwards userdata packets, while also acting as the mobility anchor for the userplane during inter-eNode B handovers and as the anchor for mobilitybetween LTE and other 3GPP technologies (terminating S4 interface andrelaying the traffic between 2G/3G systems and PDN GW). For idle stateuser equipments, the SGW terminates the downlink data path and triggerspaging when downlink data arrives for the user equipment. It manages andstores user equipment contexts, e.g. parameters of the IP bearerservice, network internal routing information. It also performsreplication of the user traffic in case of lawful interception.

The MME is the key control-node for the LTE access-network. It isresponsible for idle mode user equipment tracking and paging procedureincluding retransmissions. It is involved in the beareractivation/deactivation process and is also responsible for choosing theSGW for a user equipment at the initial attach and at time of intra-LTEhandover involving Core Network (CN) node relocation. It is responsiblefor authenticating the user (by interacting with the HSS). TheNon-Access Stratum (NAS) signaling terminates at the MME and it is alsoresponsible for generation and allocation of temporary identities touser equipments. It checks the authorization of the user equipment tocamp on the service provider's Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) andenforces user equipment roaming restrictions. The MME is the terminationpoint in the network for ciphering/integrity protection for NASsignaling and handles the security key management. Lawful interceptionof signaling is also supported by the MME. The MME also provides thecontrol plane function for mobility between LTE and 2G/3G accessnetworks with the S3 interface terminating at the MME from the SGSN. TheMME also terminates the S6a interface towards the home HSS for roaminguser equipments.

Uplink Access Scheme for LTE

For uplink transmission, power-efficient user-terminal transmission isnecessary to maximize coverage. Single-carrier transmission combinedwith FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access) with dynamic bandwidthallocation has been chosen as the evolved UTRA uplink transmissionscheme. The main reason for the preference for single-carriertransmission is the lower peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), comparedto multi-carrier signals (OFDMA—Orthogonal Frequency Division MultipleAccess), and the corresponding improved power-amplifier efficiency andassumed improved coverage (higher data rates for a given terminal peakpower). During each time interval, eNode B assigns users a uniquetime/frequency resource for transmitting user data thereby ensuringintra-cell orthogonality. An orthogonal access in the uplink promisesincreased spectral efficiency by eliminating intra-cell interference.Interference due to multipath propagation is handled at the base station(eNode B), aided by insertion of a cyclic prefix in the transmittedsignal.

The basic physical resource used for data transmission consists of afrequency resource of size BW_(grant) during one time interval, e.g. asub-frame of 0.5 ms, onto which coded information bits are mapped. Itshould be noted that a sub-frame, also referred to as transmission timeinterval (TTI), is the smallest time interval for user datatransmission. It is however possible to assign a frequency resourceBW_(grant) over a longer time period than one TTI to a user byconcatenation of sub-frames.

The frequency resource can either be in a localized or distributedspectrum as illustrated in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4. As can be seen from FIG.3, localized single-carrier is characterized by the transmitted signalhaving a continuous spectrum that occupies a part of the total availablespectrum. Different symbol rates (corresponding to different data rates)of the transmitted signal imply different bandwidths of a localizedsingle-carrier signal.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4, distributed single-carrier ischaracterized by the transmitted signal having a non-continuous(“comb-shaped”) spectrum that is distributed over system bandwidth. Notethat, although the distributed single-carrier signal is distributed overthe system bandwidth, the total amount of occupied spectrum is, inessence, the same as that of localized single-carrier. Furthermore, forhigher/lower symbol rate, the number of “comb-fingers” isincreased/reduced, while the “bandwidth” of each “comb finger” remainsthe same.

At first glance, the spectrum in FIG. 4 may give the impression of amulti-carrier signal where each comb-finger corresponds to a“sub-carrier”. However, from the time-domain signal-generation of adistributed single-carrier signal, it should be clear that what is beinggenerated is a true single-carrier signal with a corresponding lowpeak-to-average power ratio. The key difference between a distributedsingle-carrier signal versus a multi-carrier signal, such as e.g. OFDM(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex), is that, in the former case,each “sub-carrier” or “comb finger” does not carry a single modulationsymbol. Instead each “comb-finger” carries information about allmodulation symbols. This creates a dependency between the differentcomb-fingers that leads to the low-PAPR characteristics. It is the samedependency between the “comb fingers” that leads to a need forequalization unless the channel is frequency-non-selective over theentire transmission bandwidth. In contrast, for OFDM equalization is notneeded as long as the channel is frequency-non-selective over thesub-carrier bandwidth.

Distributed transmission can provide a larger frequency diversity gainthan localized transmission, while localized transmission more easilyallows for channel-dependent scheduling. Note that, in many cases thescheduling decision may decide to give the whole bandwidth to a singleuser equipment to achieve high data rates.

Uplink Scheduling Scheme for LTE

The uplink scheme allows for both scheduled access, i.e. controlled byeNodeB, and contention-based access.

In case of scheduled access the user equipment is allocated a certainfrequency resource for a certain time (i.e. a time/frequency resource)for uplink data transmission. However, some time/frequency resources canbe allocated for contention-based access. Within these time/frequencyresources, user equipments can transmit without first being scheduled.One scenario where user equipment is making a contention-based access isfor example the random access, i.e. when user equipment is performinginitial access to a cell or for requesting uplink resources.

For the scheduled access eNodeB scheduler assigns a user a uniquefrequency/time resource for uplink data transmission. More specificallythe scheduler determines

-   -   which user equipment(s) that is (are) allowed to transmit,    -   which physical channel resources (frequency),    -   Transport format (Transport Block Size (TBS) and Modulation        Coding Scheme (MCS)) to be used by the mobile terminal for        transmission

The allocation information is signaled to the user equipment via ascheduling grant, sent on the so-called L1/L2 control channel. Forsimplicity, this downlink channel is referred to the “uplink grantchannel” in the following.

A scheduling grant message (also referred to as an resource assignmentherein) contains at least information which part of the frequency bandthe user equipment is allowed to use, the validity period of the grant,and the transport format the user equipment has to use for the upcominguplink transmission. The shortest validity period is one sub-frame.Additional information may also be included in the grant message,depending on the selected scheme. Only “per user equipment” grants areused to grant the right to transmit on the Uplink Shared Channel UL-SCH(i.e. there are no “per user equipment per RB” grants). Therefore theuser equipment needs to distribute the allocated resources among theradio bearers according to some rules, which will be explained in detailin the next section.

Unlike in HSUPA there is no user equipment based transport formatselection. The base station (eNodeB) decides the transport format basedon some information, e.g. reported scheduling information and QoSinformation, and user equipment has to follow the selected transportformat. In HSUPA eNodeB assigns the maximum uplink resource and userequipment selects accordingly the actual transport format for the datatransmissions.

Uplink data transmissions are only allowed to use the time-frequencyresources assigned to the user equipment through the scheduling grant.If the user equipment does not have a valid grant, it is not allowed totransmit any uplink data. Unlike in HSUPA, where each user equipment isalways allocated a dedicated channel there is only one uplink datachannel shared by multiple users (UL-SCH) for data transmissions.

To request resources, the user equipment transmits a resource requestmessage to the eNodeB. This resources request message could for examplecontain information on the buffer status, the power status of the userequipment and some Quality of Services (QoS) related information. Thisinformation, which will be referred to as scheduling information, allowseNodeB to make an appropriate resource allocation. Throughout thedocument it's assumed that the buffer status is reported for a group ofradio bearers. Of course other configurations for the buffer statusreporting are also possible. Since the scheduling of radio resources isthe most important function in a shared channel access network fordetermining Quality of Service, there are a number of requirements thatshould be fulfilled by the uplink scheduling scheme for LTE in order toallow for an efficient QoS management (see 3GPP RAN WG#2 Tdoc.R2-R2-062606, “QoS operator requirements/use cases for services sharingthe same bearer”, by T-Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, Orange, KPN;available at http://www.3gpp.org/ and incorporated herein by reference):

-   -   Starvation of low priority services should be avoided    -   Clear QoS differentiation for radio bearers/services should be        supported by the scheduling scheme    -   The uplink reporting should allow fine granular buffer reports        (e.g. per radio bearer or per radio bearer group) in order to        allow the eNode B scheduler to identify for which Radio        Bearer/service data is to be sent.    -   It should be possible to make clear QoS differentiation between        services of different users    -   It should be possible to provide a minimum bit-rate per radio        bearer

As can be seen from above list one essential aspect of the LTEscheduling scheme is to provide mechanisms with which the operator cancontrol the partitioning of its aggregate cell capacity between theradio bearers of the different QoS classes. The QoS class of a radiobearer is identified by the QoS profile of the corresponding SAE bearersignaled from serving gateway to eNode B as described before. Anoperator can then allocate a certain amount of its aggregate cellcapacity to the aggregate traffic associated with radio bearers of acertain QoS class.

The main goal of employing this class-based approach is to be able todifferentiate the treatment of packets depending on the QoS class theybelong to. For example, as the load in a cell increases, it should bepossible for an operator to handle this by throttling traffic belongingto a low-priority QoS class. At this stage, the high-priority trafficcan still experience a low-loaded situation, since the aggregateresources allocated to this traffic is sufficient to serve it. Thisshould be possible in both uplink and downlink direction.

One benefit of employing this approach is to give the operator fullcontrol of the policies that govern the partitioning of the bandwidth.For example, one operator's policy could be to, even at extremely highloads, avoid starvation of traffic belonging to its lowest priority QoSClass. The avoidance of starvation of low priority traffic is one of themain requirements for the uplink scheduling scheme in LTE. In currentUMTS Release 6 (HSUPA) scheduling mechanism the absolute prioritizationscheme may lead to starvation of low priority applications. E-TFCselection (Enhanced Transport Format Combination selection) is done onlyin accordance to absolute logical channel priorities, i.e. thetransmission of high priority data is maximized, which means that lowpriority data is possibly starved by high priority data. In order toavoid starvation the eNode B scheduler must have means to control fromwhich radio bearers a user equipment transmits data. This mainlyinfluences the design and use of the scheduling grants transmitted onthe L1/L2 control channel in downlink. In the following the details ofthe uplink rate control procedure in LTE is outlined.

Uplink Rate Control/Logical Channel Prioritization Procedure

For UMTS long term evolution (LTE) uplink transmissions there is adesire that starvation be avoided and greater flexibility in resourceassignment between bearers be possible, whilst retaining the per userequipment, rather than per user equipment bearer, resource allocation.

The user equipment has an uplink rate control function which manages thesharing of uplink resources between radio bearers. This uplink ratecontrol function is also referred to as logical channel prioritizationprocedure in the following. The Logical Channel Prioritization (LCP)procedure is applied when a new transmission is performed, i.e. atransport block needs to be generated. One proposal for assigningcapacity has been to assign resources to each bearer, in priority order,until each has received an allocation equivalent to the minimum datarate for that bearer, after which any additional capacity is assigned tobearers in, for example, priority order.

As will become evident from the description of the LCP procedure givenbelow, the implementation of the LCP procedure residing in the userequipment is based on the token bucket model, which is well known in theIP world. The basic functionality of this model is as follows.Periodically and at a given rate, a token which represents the right totransmit a quantity of data is added to the bucket. When the userequipment is granted resources, it is allowed to transmit data up to theamount represented by the number of tokens in the bucket. Whentransmitting data the user equipment removes the number of tokensequivalent to the quantity of transmitted data. In case the bucket isfull, any further tokens are discarded. For the addition of tokens itcould be assumed that the period of the repetition of this process wouldbe every TTI, but it could be easily lengthened such that a token isonly added every second. Basically instead of every 1 ms a token isadded to the bucket, 1000 tokens could be added every second.

In the following the logical channel prioritization procedure used inLTE Rel. 8 is described (see for further details: 3GPP TS 36.321,“Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Medium AccessControl (MAC) protocol specification”, version 8.5, available athttp://www.3gpp.org and incorporated herein by reference).

RRC controls the scheduling of uplink data by signalling for eachlogical channel: priority where an increasing priority value indicates alower priority level, prioritisedBitRate which sets the Prioritized BitRate (PBR), bucketSizeDuration which sets the Bucket Size Duration(BSD). The idea behind prioritized bit rate is to support for eachbearer, including low priority non-GBR bearers, a minimum bit rate inorder to avoid a potential starvation. Each bearer should at least getenough resources in order to achieve the prioritized bit rate (PRB).

The UE shall maintain a variable Bj for each logical channel j. Bj shallbe initialized to zero when the related logical channel is established,and incremented by the product PBR×TTI duration for each TTI, where PBRis Prioritized Bit Rate of logical channel j. However, the value of Bjcan never exceed the bucket size and if the value of Bj is larger thanthe bucket size of logical channel j, it shall be set to the bucketsize. The bucket size of a logical channel is equal to PBR×BSD, wherePBR and BSD are configured by upper layers.

The UE shall perform the following Logical Channel Prioritizationprocedure when a new transmission is performed. The uplink rate controlfunction ensures that the UE serves its radio bearer(s) in the followingsequence:

1. All the logical channel(s) in decreasing priority order up to theirconfigured PBR (according the number of tokens in the bucket which isdenoted by Bj);

2. If any resources remain, all the logical channels are served in astrict decreasing priority order (regardless of the value of Bj) untileither the data for that logical channel or the UL grant is exhausted,whichever comes first. Logical channels configured with equal priorityshould be served equally.

In case the PBRs are all set to zero, the first step is skipped and thelogical channel(s) are served in strict priority order: the UE maximizesthe transmission of higher priority data.

The UE shall also follow the rules below during the schedulingprocedures above:

-   -   the UE should not segment an RLC SDU (or partially transmitted        SDU or retransmitted RLC PDU) if the whole SDU (or partially        transmitted SDU or retransmitted RLC PDU) fits into the        remaining resources;    -   if the UE segments an RLC SDU from the logical channel, it shall        maximize the size of the segment to fill the grant as much as        possible;    -   UE should maximize the transmission of data.

Even though for LTE Rel. 8 only a Prioritized Bit Rate (PBR) is usedwithin the LCP procedure there could be also further enhancements infuture releases. For example similar to the PBR, also a maximum bit rate(MBR) per GBR bearer and an aggregated maximum bit rate (AMBR) for allNon-GBR bearers could be provided to the user equipment. The MBR denotesbit rates of traffic per bearer while AMBR denotes a bit rate of trafficper group of bearers. AMBR applies to all Non-GBR SAE Bearers of a userequipment. GBR SAE Bearers are outside the scope of AMBR. Multiple SAENon-GBR bearers can share the same AMBR. That is, each of those SAEbearers could potentially utilize the entire AMBR, e.g. when the otherSAE bearers do not carry any traffic. The AMBR limits the aggregated bitrate that can be expected to be provided by the Non-GBR SAE bearerssharing the AMBR.

HARQ Protocol Operation for Unicast Data Transmissions

A common technique for error detection and correction in packettransmission systems over unreliable channels is called hybrid AutomaticRepeat request (HARQ). Hybrid ARQ is a combination of Forward ErrorCorrection (FEC) and ARQ.

If a FEC encoded packet is transmitted and the receiver fails to decodethe packet correctly (errors are usually checked by a CRC (CyclicRedundancy Check)), the receiver requests a retransmission of the packet

In LTE there are two levels of re-transmissions for providingreliability, namely, HARQ at the MAC layer and outer ARQ at the RLClayer. The outer ARQ is required to handle residual errors that are notcorrected by HARQ that is kept simple by the use of a single biterror-feedback mechanism, i.e. ACK/NACK. An N-process stop-and-wait HARQis employed that has asynchronous re-transmissions in the downlink andsynchronous re-transmissions in the uplink. Synchronous HARQ means thatthe re-transmissions of HARQ blocks occur at pre-defined periodicintervals. Hence, no explicit signaling is required to indicate to thereceiver the retransmission schedule. Asynchronous HARQ offers theflexibility of scheduling re-transmissions based on air interfaceconditions. In this case some identification of the HARQ process needsto be signaled in order to allow for a correct combing and protocoloperation. In 3GPP, HARQ operations with eight processes is used in LTERel. 8. The HARQ protocol operation for Downlink data transmission willbe similar or even identical to HSDPA.

In uplink HARQ protocol operation there are two different options on howto schedule a retransmission. Retransmissions are either scheduled by aNACK, synchronous non-adaptive retransmission, or explicitly scheduledby a PDCCH, synchronous adaptive retransmissions. In case of asynchronous non-adaptive retransmission the retransmission will use thesame parameters as the previous uplink transmission, i.e. theretransmission will be signaled on the same physical channel resourcesrespectively uses the same modulation scheme. Since synchronous adaptiveretransmissions are explicitly scheduled via PDCCH, the eNode B has thepossibility to change certain parameters for the retransmission. Aretransmission could be for example scheduled on a different frequencyresource in order to avoid fragmentation in the uplink, or the eNode Bcould change the modulation scheme or alternatively indicate userequipment what redundancy version to use for the retransmission. Itshould be noted that the HARQ feedback (ACK/NACK) and PDCCH signalingoccurs at the same timing. Therefore user equipment only needs to checkonce whether a synchronous non-adaptive retransmission is triggered,only NACK is received, or whether the eNode B requests a synchronousadaptive retransmission, i.e. PDCCH is signaled.

L1/L2 Control Signaling

In order to inform the scheduled users about their allocation status,transport format and other data related information (e.g. HARQ), L1/L2control signaling needs to be transmitted on the downlink along with thedata. The control signaling needs to be multiplexed with the downlinkdata in a sub-frame (assuming that the user allocation can change fromsub-frame to sub-frame). Here, it should be noted, that user allocationmight also be performed on a TTI (Transmission Time Interval) basis,where the TTI length is a multiple of the sub-frames. The TTI length maybe fixed in a service area for all users, may be different for differentusers, or may even by dynamic for each user. Generally, then the L1/2control signaling needs only be transmitted once per TTI. The L1/L2control signaling is transmitted on the Physical Downlink ControlChannel (PDCCH). It should be noted that assignments for uplink datatransmissions, uplink grants, are also transmitted on the PDCCH.

Generally, the PDCCH information sent on the L1/L2 control signaling maybe separated into the Shared Control Information (SCI) and DedicatedControl Information (DCI).

Shared Control Information (SCI)

Shared Control Information (SCI) carries so-called Cat 1 information.The SCI part of the L1/L2 control signaling contains information relatedto the resource allocation (indication). The SCI typically contains thefollowing information:

-   -   User identity, indicating the user which is allocated    -   RB allocation information, indicating the resources (Resource        Blocks, RBs) on which a user is allocated. Note, that the number        of RBs on which a user is allocated can be dynamic.    -   Duration of assignment (optional) if an assignment over multiple        sub-frames (or TTIs) is possible

Depending on the setup of other channels and the setup of the DedicatedControl Information (DCI), the SCI may additionally contain informationsuch as ACK/NACK for uplink transmission, uplink scheduling information,information on the DCI (resource, MCS, etc.).

Dedicated Control Information (DCI)

Dedicated Control Information (DCI) carries the so-called Cat 2/3information. The DCI part of the L1/L2 control signaling containsinformation related to the transmission format (Cat 2) of the datatransmitted to a scheduled user indicated by Cat 1. Moreover, in case ofapplication of (hybrid) ARQ it carries HARQ (Cat 3) information. The DCIneeds only to be decoded by the user scheduled according to Cat 1. TheDCI typically contains information on:

-   -   Cat 2: Modulation scheme, transport-block (payload) size (or        coding rate), MIMO related information, etc. Note, either the        transport-block (or payload size) or the code rate can be        signaled. In any case these parameters can be calculated from        each other by using the modulation scheme information and the        resource information (number of allocated RBs).    -   Cat 3: HARQ related information, e.g. hybrid ARQ process number,        redundancy version, retransmission sequence number

L1/L2 Control Signaling Information for Downlink Data Transmission

Along with the downlink packet data transmission, L1/L2 controlsignaling is transmitted on a separate physical channel (PDCCH). ThisL1/L2 control signaling typically contains information on:

-   -   The physical channel resource(s) on which the data is        transmitted (e.g. subcarriers or subcarrier blocks in case of        OFDM, codes in case of CDMA). This information allows the user        equipment (receiver) to identify the resources on which the data        is transmitted.    -   The transport Format, which is used for the transmission. This        can be the transport block size of the data (payload size,        information bits size), the MCS (Modulation and Coding Scheme)        level, the Spectral Efficiency, the code rate, etc. This        information (usually together with the resource allocation)        allows the user equipment (receiver) to identify the information        bit size, the modulation scheme and the code rate in order to        start the demodulation, the de-rate-matching and the decoding        process. In some cases the modulation scheme maybe signaled        explicitly.    -   HARQ information:        -   Process number: Allows the user equipment to identify the            HARQ process on which the data is mapped.        -   Sequence number or new data indicator: Allows the user            equipment to identify if the transmission is a new packet or            a retransmitted packet.        -   Redundancy and/or constellation version: Tells the user            equipment, which hybrid ARQ redundancy version is used            (required for de-rate-matching) and/or which modulation            constellation version is used (required for demodulation)    -   user equipment Identity (user equipment ID): Tells for which        user equipment the L1/L2 control signaling is intended for. In        typical implementations this information is used to mask the CRC        of the L1/L2 control signaling in order to prevent other user        equipments to read this information.

L1/L2 Control Signaling Information for Uplink Data Transmission

To enable an uplink packet data transmission, L1/L2 control signaling istransmitted on the downlink (PDCCH) to tell the user equipment about thetransmission details. This L1/L2 control signaling typically containsinformation on:

-   -   The physical channel resource(s) on which the user equipment        should transmit the data (e.g. subcarriers or subcarrier blocks        in case of OFDM, codes in case of CDMA).    -   The transport format, the user equipment should use for the        transmission. This can be the transport block size of the data        (payload size, information bits size), the MCS (Modulation and        Coding Scheme) level, the Spectral Efficiency, the code rate,        etc. This information (usually together with the resource        allocation) allows the user equipment (transmitter) to pick the        information bit size, the modulation scheme and the code rate in        order to start the modulation, the rate-matching and the        encoding process. In some cases the modulation scheme maybe        signaled explicitly.    -   Hybrid ARQ information:        -   Process number: Tells the user equipment from which hybrid            ARQ process it should pick the data.        -   Sequence number or new data indicator: Tells the user            equipment to transmit a new packet or to retransmit a            packet.        -   Redundancy and/or constellation version: Tells the user            equipment, which hybrid ARQ redundancy version to use            (required for rate-matching) and/or which modulation            constellation version to use (required for modulation).    -   user equipment Identity (user equipment ID): Tells which user        equipment should transmit data. In typical implementations this        information is used to mask the CRC of the L1/L2 control        signaling in order to prevent other user equipments to read this        information.

There are several different flavors how to exactly transmit theinformation pieces mentioned above. Moreover, the L1/L2 controlinformation may also contain additional information or may omit some ofthe information. E.g.:

-   -   HARQ process number may not be needed in case of a synchronous        HARQ protocol.    -   A redundancy and/or constellation version may not be needed if        Chase Combining is used (always the same redundancy and/or        constellation version) or if the sequence of redundancy and/or        constellation versions is pre defined.    -   Power control information may be additionally included in the        control signaling.    -   MIMO related control information, such as e.g. pre-coding, may        be additionally included in the control signaling.    -   In case of multi-codeword MIMO transmission transport format        and/or HARQ information for multiple code words may be included.

For uplink resource assignments (PUSCH) signaled on PDCCH in LTE, theL1/L2 control information does not contain a HARQ process number, sincea synchronous HARQ protocol is employed for LTE uplink. The HARQ processto be used for an uplink transmission is given by the timing.Furthermore it should be noted that the redundancy version (RV)information is jointly encoded with the transport format information,i.e. the RV info is embedded in the transport format (TF) field. The TFrespectively MCS field has for example a size of 5 bits, whichcorresponds to 32 entries. 3 TF/MCS table entries are reserved forindicating RVs 1, 2 or 3. The remaining MCS table entries are used tosignal the MCS level (TBS) implicitly indicating RVO. The size of theCRC field of the PDCCH is 16 bits.

For downlink assignments (PDSCH) signaled on PDCCH in LTE the RedundancyVersion (RV) is signaled separately in a two-bit field. Furthermore themodulation order information is jointly encoded with the transportformat information. Similar to the uplink case there is 5 bit MCS fieldsignaled on PDCCH. Three of the entries are reserved to signal anexplicit modulation order, providing no Transport format (Transportblock) info. For the remaining 29 entries modulation order and Transportblock size info are signaled.

Uplink Power Control

Uplink transmission power control in a mobile communication systemserves an important purpose: it balances the need for sufficienttransmitted energy per bit to achieve the required Quality-of-Service(QoS), against the needs to minimize interference to other users of thesystem and to maximize the battery life of the mobile terminal. Inachieving this purpose, the role of the Power Control (PC) becomesdecisive to provide the required SINR (Signal to Interference NoiseRatio) while controlling at the same time the interference caused toneighboring cells. The idea of classic PC schemes in uplink is that allusers are received with the same SINR, which is known as fullcompensation. As an alternative, 3GPP has adopted for LTE the use ofFractional Power Control (FPC). This new functionality makes users witha higher path-loss operate at a lower SINR requirement so that they willmore likely generate less interference to neighboring cells.

Detailed power control formulae are specified in LTE for the PhysicalUplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH)and the Sounding Reference Signals (SRSs) (see section 5.1 of 3GPP TS36.213, “Physical layer procedures (Release 8)”, version 8.6.0,available at http://www.3gpp.org). The respective power control formulafor each of these uplink signals follows the same basic principles. Theycan be considered as a summation of two main terms: a basic open-loopoperating point derived from static or semi-static parameters signaledby the eNodeB, and a dynamic offset updated from sub-frame to sub-frame.

The basic open-loop operating point for the transmit power per resourceblock depends on a number of factors including the inter-cellinterference and cell load. It can be further broken down into twocomponents, a semi-static base level P₀, further comprised of a commonpower level for all user equipments (UEs) in the cell (measured in dBm)and a UE-specific offset, and an open-loop path-loss compensationcomponent. The dynamic offset part of the power per resource block canalso be further broken down into two components, a component dependenton the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) and explicit Transmitter PowerControl (TPC) commands.

The MCS-dependent component (referred to in the LTE specifications asΔ_(TF), where TF is short for Transport Format) allows the transmittedpower per RB to be adapted according to the transmitted information datarate.

The other component of the dynamic offset is the UE-specific TPCcommands. These can operate in two different modes:

-   -   accumulative TPC commands (available for PUSCH, PUCCH and SRS)        and    -   absolute TPC commands (available for PUSCH only).

For the PUSCH, the switch between these two modes is configuredsemi-statically for each user equipment by RRC signaling—i.e. the modecannot be changed dynamically. With the accumulative TPC commands, eachTPC command signals a power step relative to the previous level.

Formula (1) below shows the user equipment transmit power in dBm for thePUSCH:P _(PUSCH)=min└P _(MAX),10·log₁₀ M+P _(0_PUSCH) +α·PL+Δ_(MCS)+ƒ(Δ_(i))┘  (1)where:

-   -   P_(MAX) is the maximum available transmit power of the user        equipment, which is depending on the user equipment class and        configuration by the network    -   M is the number of allocated physical resource blocks (PRBs).    -   PL is the user equipment path loss derived at the UE-based on        RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power)measurement and signaled        RS (Reference Symbol) eNodeB transmission power.    -   Δ_(MCS) is an MCS-dependent power offset set by the eNodeB.    -   P_(0_PUSCH) is a UE-specific parameter (partially broadcasted        and partially signaled using RRC).    -   α is cell-specific parameter (broadcasted on BCH).    -   Δ_(i) are closed loop PC commands signaled from the eNodeB to        the user equipment    -   function ƒ( ) indicates whether closed loop commands are        relative accumulative or absolute. The function ƒ( ) is signaled        to the user equipment via higher layers.        Further Advancements for LTE (LTE-A)

The frequency spectrum for IMT-Advanced was decided at the WorldRadiocommunication Conference 2007 (WRC-07). Although the overallfrequency spectrum for IMT-Advanced was decided, the actual availablefrequency bandwidth is different according to each region or country.Following the decision on the available frequency spectrum outline,however, standardization of a radio interface started in the 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP). At the 3GPP TSG RAN #39 meeting,the Study Item description on “Further Advancements for E-UTRA(LTE-Advanced)” was approved. The study item covers technologycomponents to be considered for the evolution of E-UTRA, e.g. to fulfillthe requirements on IMT-Advanced. Two major technology components whichare currently under consideration for LTE-Advanced (LTE-A for short) aredescribed in the following.

LTE-A Support of Wider Bandwidth

Carrier aggregation, where two or more component carriers areaggregated, is considered for LTE-A in order to support widertransmission bandwidths e.g. up to 100 MHz and for spectrum aggregation.

A terminal may simultaneously receive or transmit on one or multiplecomponent carriers depending on its capabilities:

-   -   An LTE-A terminal with reception and/or transmission        capabilities for carrier aggregation can simultaneously receive        and/or transmit on multiple component carriers. There is one        Transport Block (in absence of spatial multiplexing) and one        HARQ entity per component carrier.    -   An LTE Rel. 8 terminal can receive and transmit on a single        component carrier only, provided that the structure of the        component carrier follows the Rel. 8 specifications.

It shall be possible to configure all component carriers LTE Rel. 8compatible, at least when the aggregated numbers of component carriersin the uplink and the downlink are same. Consideration ofnon-backward-compatible configurations of LTE-A component carriers isnot precluded

At present, LTE-A supports carrier aggregation for both contiguous andnon-contiguous component carriers with each component carrier limited toa maximum of 110 Resource Blocks (RBs) in the frequency domain, usingthe LTE Rel. 8 numerology. It is possible to configure a user equipmentto aggregate a different number of component carriers originating fromthe same eNodeB. Please note that component carriers originating fromthe same eNodeB do no necessarily need to provide the same coverage.

Furthermore, a user equipment may be configured with differentbandwidths in the uplink and the downlink:

-   -   The number of downlink component carriers that can be configured        depends on the downlink aggregation capability of the user        equipment;    -   The number of uplink component carriers that can be configured        depends on the uplink aggregation capability of the user        equipment;    -   It is not possible to configure a user equipment with more        uplink component carriers than downlink component carriers;    -   In typical TDD deployments, the number of component carriers and        the bandwidth of each component carrier in uplink and downlink        is the same.

The spacing between centre frequencies of contiguously aggregatedcomponent carriers is a multiple of 300 kHz. This is in order to becompatible with the 100 kHz frequency raster of LTE Rel. 8 and at thesame time preserve orthogonality of the subcarriers with 15 kHz spacing.Depending on the aggregation scenario, the n×300 kHz spacing can befacilitated by insertion of a low number of unused subcarriers betweencontiguous component carriers.

The nature of the aggregation of multiple carriers is only exposed up tothe MAC layer. For uplink and for downlink there is one HARQ entityrequired in MAC for each aggregated component carrier. There is (in theabsence of Single User—Multiple Input Multiple Output (SU-MIMO) foruplink) at most one transport block per component carrier. A transportblock and its potential HARQ retransmissions need to be mapped on thesame component carrier. The Layer 2 structure with configured carrieraggregation is shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 for the downlink and uplinkrespectively.

When carrier aggregation is configured, the user equipment has only oneRRC connection with the network. At RRC connectionestablishment/re-establishment, one cell provides the security input(one ECGI, one PCI and one ARFCN) and the non-access stratum (NAS)mobility information (e.g. tracking area identifier (TAI)), similar toLTE Rel. 8. After RRC connection establishment/re-establishment, thecomponent carrier corresponding to that cell is referred to as theDownlink Primary Component Carrier (DL PCC) in the downlink. There isalways only one DL PCC and one UL PCC configured per user equipment inconnected mode. Within the configured set of component carriers, othercomponent carriers are referred to as Secondary Component Carriers(SCCs).

The characteristics of the DL PCC and UL PCC are:

-   -   The UL PCC is used for transmission of Layer 1 (L1) uplink        control information;    -   The DL PCC cannot be de-activated;    -   Re-establishment of the DL PCC is triggered when the DL PCC        experiences Radio Link Failure (RLF), but not when DL SCCs        experience RLF;    -   The DL PCC cell can change with handover;    -   NAS information is taken from the DL PCC cell.

The reconfiguration, addition and removal of component carriers can beperformed by RRC signaling. At intra-LTE handover, RRC can also add,remove, or reconfigure component carriers for usage in the target cell.When adding a new component carrier, dedicated RRC signaling is used forsending component carrier's system information which is necessary forcomponent carrier transmission/reception (similarly as in LTE Rel.8 forhandover).

When carrier aggregation is configured, a user equipment may bescheduled over multiple component carriers simultaneously but at mostone random access procedure shall be ongoing at any time. Cross-carrierscheduling allows the PDCCH of a component carrier to schedule resourceson another component carrier. For this purpose a component carrieridentification field is introduced in the respective DCI formats (called“CIF”). A linking between uplink and downlink component carriers allowsidentifying the uplink component carrier for which the grant applieswhen there is no-cross-carrier scheduling. The linkage of downlinkcomponent carriers to uplink component carriers does not necessarilyneed to be one to one. In other words, more than one downlink componentcarrier can link to the same uplink component carrier. At the same time,a downlink component carrier can only link to one uplink componentcarrier.

(De)Activation of a Component Carrier and DRX Operation

In carrier aggregation, whenever a user equipment is configured withonly one component carrier, LTE Rel. 8 DRX operation applies. In othercases, the same DRX operation applies to all configured and activatedcomponent carriers (i.e. identical active time for PDCCH monitoring).When in active time, any component carrier may always schedule PDSCH onany other configured and activated component carrier.

To enable reasonable UE battery consumption when carrier aggregation isconfigured, a component carrier activation/deactivation mechanism fordownlink SCCs is introduced (i.e. activation/deactivation does not applyto the PCC). When a downlink SCC is not active, the UE does not need toreceive the corresponding PDCCH or PDSCH, nor is it required to performCQI measurements. Conversely, when a downlink SCC is active, the userequipment should receive the PDSCH and PDCCH (if present), and isexpected to be able to perform CQI measurements. In the uplink however,a user equipment is always required to be able to transmit on the PUSCHon any configured uplink component carrier when scheduled on thecorresponding PDCCH (i.e. there is no explicit activation of uplinkcomponent carriers).

Other details of the activation/deactivation mechanism for SCCs are:

-   -   Explicit activation of DL SCCs is done by MAC signaling;    -   Explicit deactivation of DL SCCs is done by MAC signaling;    -   Implicit deactivation of DL SCCs is also possible;    -   DL SCCs can be activated and deactivated individually, and a        single activation/deactivation command can activate/deactivate a        subset of the configured DL SCCs;    -   SCCs added to the set of configured CCs are initially        “deactivated”.        Timing Advance

As already mentioned above, for the uplink transmission scheme of 3GPPLTE single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) waschosen to achieve an orthogonal multiple-access in time and frequencybetween the different user equipments transmitting in the uplink.

Uplink orthogonality is maintained by ensuring that the transmissionsfrom different user equipments in a cell are time-aligned at thereceiver of the eNodeB. This avoids intra-cell interference occurring,both between user equipments assigned to transmit in consecutivesub-frames and between user equipments transmitting on adjacentsubcarriers. Time alignment of the uplink transmissions is achieved byapplying a timing advance at the user equipment's transmitter, relativeto the received downlink timing as exemplified in FIG. 7. The main roleof this is to counteract differing propagation delays between differentuser equipments.

Initial Timing Advance Procedure

When user equipment is synchronized to the downlink transmissionsreceived from eNodeB, the initial timing advance is set by means of therandom access procedure as described below. The user equipment transmitsa random access preamble based on which the eNodeB can estimate theuplink timing. The eNodeB responds with an 11-bit initial timing advancecommand contained within the Random Access Response (RAR) message. Thisallows the timing advance to be configured by the eNodeB with agranularity of 0.52 μs from 0 up to a maximum of 0.67 ms.

Additional information on the control of the uplink timing and timingadvance on 3GPP LTE (Release 8/9) can be found in chapter 20.2 ofStefania Sesia, Issam Toufik and Matthew Baker, “LTE—The UMTS Long TermEvolution: From Theory to Practice”, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2009, whichis incorporated herein by reference.

Updates of the Timing Advance

Once the timing advance has been first set for each user equipment, thetiming advance is updated from time to time to counteract changes in thearrival time of the uplink signals at the eNodeB. In deriving the timingadvance update commands, the eNodeB may measure any uplink signal whichis useful. The details of the uplink timing measurements at the eNodeBare not specified, but left to the implementation of the eNodeB.

The timing advance update commands are generated at the Medium AccessControl (MAC) layer in the eNodeB and transmitted to the user equipmentas MAC control elements which may be multiplexed together with data onthe Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). Like the initial timingadvance command in the response to the Random Access Channel (RACH)preamble, the update commands have a granularity of 0.52 μs. The rangeof the update commands is ±16 μs, allowing a step change in uplinktiming equivalent to the length of the extended cyclic prefix. Theywould typically not be sent more frequently than about every 2 seconds.In practice, fast updates are unlikely to be necessary, as even for auser equipment moving at 500 km/h the change in round-trip path lengthis not more than 278 m/s, corresponding to a change in round-trip timeof 0.93 μs/s.

The eNodeB balances the overhead of sending regular timing updatecommands to all the UEs in the cell against a UE's ability to transmitquickly when data arrives in its transmit buffer. The eNodeB thereforeconfigures a timer for each user equipment, which the user equipmentrestarts each time a timing advance update is received. In case the userequipment does not receive another timing advance update before thetimer expires, it must then consider that it has lost uplinksynchronization (see also section 5.2 of 3GPP TS 36.321, “EvolvedUniversal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Medium Access Control (MAC)protocol specification”, version 8.9.0, available at http://www.3gpp.organd incorporated herein by reference).

In such a case, in order to avoid the risk of generating interference touplink transmissions from other user equipments, the UE is not permittedto make another uplink transmission of any sort and needs to revert tothe initial timing alignment procedure in order to restore the uplinktiming.

Random Access Procedure

A mobile terminal in LTE can only be scheduled for uplink transmission,if its uplink transmission is time synchronized. Therefore the RandomAccess (RACH) procedure plays an important role as an interface betweennon-synchronized mobile terminals (UEs) and the orthogonal transmissionof the uplink radio access.

Essentially the Random Access in LTE is used to achieve uplink timesynchronization for a user equipment which either has not yet acquired,or has lost, its uplink synchronization. Once a user equipment hasachieved uplink synchronization the eNodeB can schedule uplinktransmission resources for it. The following scenarios are thereforerelevant for random access:

-   -   A user equipment in RRC_CONNECTED state, but not        uplink-synchronized, wishing to send new uplink data or control        information    -   A user equipment in RRC_CONNECTED state, but not        uplink-synchronized, required to receive downlink data, and        therefore to transmit corresponding HARQ feedback, i.e.        ACK/NACK, in the uplink. This scenario is also referred to as        Downlink data arrival    -   A user equipment in RRC_CONNECTED state, handing over from its        current serving cell to a new target cell; in order to achieve        uplink time-synchronization in the target cell Random Access        procedure is performed    -   A transition from RRC IDLE state to RRC_CONNECTED, for example        for initial access or tracking area updates    -   Recovering from radio link failure, i.e. RRC connection        re-establishment

There is one more additional case, where user equipment performs randomaccess procedure, even though user equipment is time-synchronized. Inthis scenario the user equipment uses the random access procedure inorder to send a scheduling request, i.e. uplink buffer status report, toits eNodeB, in case it does not have any other uplink resource allocatedin which to send the scheduling request, i.e. dedicated schedulingrequest (D-SR) channel is not configured.

LTE offers two types of random access procedures that allow access to beeither contention based, i.e. implying an inherent risk of collision, orcontention-free (non-contention based). It should be noted thatcontention-based random access can be applied for all six scenarioslisted above, whereas a non-contention based random access procedure canonly be applied for the downlink data arrival and handover scenario.

In the following the contention based random access procedure is beingdescribed in more detail with respect to FIG. 8. A detailed descriptionof the random access procedure can be also found in 3GPP 36.321, section5.1.

FIG. 8 shows the contention based RACH procedure of LTE. This procedureconsists of four “steps”. First, the user equipment transmits 801 arandom access preamble on the Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) tothe eNodeB. The preamble is selected by user equipment from the set ofavailable random access preambles reserved by eNodeB for contentionbased access. In LTE, there are 64 preambles per cell which can be usedfor contention-free as well as contention based random access. The setof contention based preambles can be further subdivided into two groups,so that the choice of preamble can carry one bit of information toindicate information relating to the amount of transmission resourcesneeded to transmit for the first scheduled transmission, which isreferred to as msg3 in TS36.321 (see step 703). The system informationbroadcasted in the cell contain the information which signatures(preambles) are in each of the two subgroups as well as the meaning ofeach subgroup. The user equipment randomly selects one preamble from thesubgroup corresponding to the size of transmission resource needed formessage 3 transmission.

After eNodeB has detected a RACH preamble, it sends 802 a Random AccessResponse (RAR) message on the PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel)addressed on the PDCCH with the (Random Access) RA-RNTI identifying thetime-frequency slot in which the preamble was detected. If multiple userequipments transmitted the same RACH preamble in the same PRACHresource, which is also referred to as collision, they would receive thesame random access response.

The RAR message conveys the detected RACH preamble, a timing alignmentcommand (TA command) for synchronization of subsequent uplinktransmissions, an initial uplink resource assignment (grant) for thetransmission of the first scheduled transmission (see step 803) and anassignment of a Temporary Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier(T-CRNTI). This T-CRNTI is used by eNodeB in order to address themobile(s) whose RACH preamble were detected until RACH procedure isfinished, since the “real” identity of the mobile is at this point notyet known by eNodeB.

Furthermore the RAR message can also contain a so-called back-offindicator, which the eNodeB can set to instruct the user equipment toback off for a period of time before retrying a random access attempt.The user equipment monitors the PDCCH for reception of random accessresponse within a given time window, which is configured by the eNodeB.In case user equipment doesn't receive a random access response withinthe configured time window, it retransmits the preamble at the nextPRACH opportunity considering a potentially back off period.

In response to the RAR message received from the eNodeB, the userequipment transmits 803 the first scheduled uplink transmission on theresources assigned by the grant within the random access response. Thisscheduled uplink transmission conveys the actual random access proceduremessage like for example RRC connection request, tracking area update orbuffer status report. Furthermore it includes either the C-RNTI for userequipments in RRC_CONNECTED mode or the unique 48-bit user equipmentidentity if the user equipments are in RRC_IDLE mode. In case of apreamble collision having occurred, i.e. multiple user equipments havesent the same preamble on the same PRACH resource, the colliding userequipments will receive the same T-CRNTI within the random accessresponse and will also collide in the same uplink resources whentransmitting 803 their scheduled transmission. This may result ininterference that no transmission from a colliding user equipment can bedecoded at the eNodeB, and the user equipments will restart the randomaccess procedure after having reached maximum number of retransmissionfor their scheduled transmission. In case the scheduled transmissionfrom one user equipment is successfully decoded by eNodeB, thecontention remains unsolved for the other user equipments.

For resolution of this type of contention, the eNode B sends 804 acontention resolution message addressed to the C-RNTI or TemporaryC-RNTI, and, in the latter case, echoes the 48-bit user equipmentidentity contained the scheduled transmission. It supports HARQ. In caseof collision followed by a successful decoding of the message sent instep 803, the HARQ feedback (ACK) is only transmitted by the userequipment which detects its own identity, either C-RNTI or unique userequipment ID. Other UEs understand that there was a collision at step 1and can quickly exit the current RACH procedure and starts another one.

FIG. 9 is illustrating the contention-free random access procedure of3GPP LTE Rel. 8/9. In comparison to the contention based random accessprocedure, the contention-free random access procedure is simplified.The eNodeB provides 901 the user equipment with the preamble to use forrandom access so that there is no risk of collisions, i.e. multiple userequipment transmitting the same preamble. Accordingly, the userequipment is sending 902 the preamble which was signaled by eNodeB inthe uplink on a PRACH resource. Since the case that multiple UEs aresending the same preamble is avoided for a contention-free randomaccess, no contention resolution is necessary, which in turn impliesthat step 804 of the contention based procedure shown in FIG. 8 can beomitted. Essentially a contention-free random access procedure isfinished after having successfully received the random access response.

Timing Advance and Component Carrier Aggregation in the Uplink

In currents specifications of the 3GPP standards the user equipment onlymaintains one timing advance value and applies this to uplinktransmissions on all aggregated component carriers. When componentcarriers are aggregated from different bands, they can experiencedifferent interference and coverage characteristics.

Furthermore the deployment of technologies like Frequency SelectiveRepeaters (FSR) as shown for example in FIG. 11 and Remote Radio Heads(RRH) as shown for example in FIG. 12 will cause different interferenceand propagation scenarios for the aggregated component carriers. Thisleads to the need of introducing more than one timing advance within oneuser equipment.

This leads to the need of introducing more than one timing advancewithin one UE. There might be a separate timing advance for eachaggregated component carrier. Another option is that component carriersthat stem from the same location and hence all experience a similarpropagation delay are grouped into timing advance groups (TA groups).For each group a separate timing advanced is maintained.

Discussions were already held in 3GPP on this problem but a singletiming advance for all aggregated uplink component carriers is regardedas sufficient, since current specifications up to 3GPP LTE-A Rel. 10support only carrier aggregation of carriers from the same frequencyband.

Accordingly, prioritization of different types of uplink transmissionson a plurality of component carriers during a same transmission timeinterval (TTI) need to be considered. For example when a user equipment(UE) is in power limited state, rules need to determine which uplinktransmission should receive the available power.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One object of the invention is to propose strategies how a mobileterminal utilizes the transmit power available for uplink transmissionsof plural transport blocks within a transmission time interval in case amobile terminal is power limited, i.e. the transmit power that would berequired for the transmission of the plural transport blocks within thetransmission time interval according to the uplink resources assignmentsis exceeding the transmit power available for uplink transmissionswithin a transmission time interval.

Another object of the invention is to propose strategies and methods howa mobile terminal utilizes the transmit power available for uplinktransmissions within a transmission time interval in power limitedsituations, i.e. in situations where the transmit power that would berequired for transmitting via the physical random access channel (PRACH)and the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)/physical uplink controlchannel (PUCCH) is exceeding the transmit power available for uplinktransmissions within the given transmission time interval.

A further object of the invention is to propose strategies and methodshow the delay imposed by the RACH procedures for uplink componentcarriers to be time aligned can be reduced in systems using carrieraggregation in the uplink.

At least one of these objects is solved by the subject matter of theindependent claims. Advantageous embodiments are subject to thedependent claims.

A first aspect of the invention is the prioritization of the powerallocation for individual transport blocks corresponding to pluraluplink resource assignments within power control. This aspect isparticularly applicable to situations where the mobile terminal is powerlimited. According to this aspect of the invention, the order ofprocessing the uplink resource assignments (priority order) on theuplink component carriers is used to determine power scaling for thepower allocation of the individual transport blocks to be transmitted onthe respective component carriers in the uplink. In power limitedsituations, the mobile terminal reduces the transmit power for thetransmission of each of the transport blocks according to the priorityof the respective transport block given by the priority order, such thatthe total transmit power spent for the transmissions of the transportblocks becomes smaller or equal to a maximum transmit power available tothe mobile terminal for transmitting the transport blocks.

According to one exemplary implementation the transmit power scaling isreducing the transmit power is taking into account the priority of theresource assignment of a respective transport block/component carrier onwhich the respective transport block is to be transmitted, as given bythe priority/processing order in that transmission of transport blockshaving high priority should be least effected by the transmit powerreduction. Advantageously, the lower (higher) the priority of theresource assignment/component carrier according to the priority order,the larger (smaller) the power reduction applied to the transmit powerfor the transport block required by its corresponding uplink resourceassignment. Ideally, the transmission power of high priority transportblocks should not be reduced, if possible, but rather the transmit powerreduction to meet a maximum transmit power available to the mobileterminal for transmitting the transport blocks should be first tried tobe obtained by limiting the transmit power for transmissions of lowpriority transport blocks.

A second aspect of the invention is the prioritization of the powerallocation for simultaneous uplink transmissions via different physicalchannels (i.e. there are multiple uplink transmissions within the sametransmission time interval). Examples for physical channels allowinguplink transmissions are physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), thephysical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and the physical random accesschannel (PRACH). Prioritizing the power allocation for uplinktransmission via different physical channels allows assigning individualtransmit powers. This power allocation may be independent from thecomponent carrier on which a respective uplink transmission is sent.

According to this second aspect different transmit power levels may beused for simultaneous uplink transmissions via a physical random accesschannel (PRACH) and via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).Alternatively, the second aspect of the invention can also be used toindividually scale the transmit power for simultaneous uplinktransmissions via a physical random access channel (PRACH) and via aphysical uplink control channel (PUCCH). Scaling transmit power foruplink transmissions based on a prioritization of the physical channelsmay be for example used to improve the SINR of the respective uplinktransmission via the prioritized physical channel. For instance, areduction of the transmit power for uplink transmissions based on theprioritization of the physical channels may allow the mobile terminal tomeet a given power constraint, if the mobile terminal in a power limitedsituation.

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention that is in line with thesecond aspect of the invention, the transmit power for physical uplinkshared channel (PUSCH) transmissions and/or physical random accesschannel (PRACH) transmissions is reduced according to a respectiveprioritization of the corresponding the channels. In this context,either the transmit power for physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)transmissions is prioritized over the transmit power for physical randomaccess channel (PRACH) transmissions or vice versa. Advantageously, thelower (higher) the priority of the physical channel transmission, thelarger (smaller) the power reduction applied to the transmit power fortransmitting via the physical channel. Ideally, in order to meet atransmit power constraint in a power limited situation, it may be triedto first limit the transmit power for low priority physical channeltransmissions, and then—if the transmit power constraint is still notmet—also the transmit power for physical channel transmissions of higherpriority may be limited.

A third aspect of the invention is to adjust the transmit power used forperforming random access (RACH) procedures based on the number of RACHprocedures required for time aligning plural uplink component carriers.Depending on the number of uplink component carriers that are to be timealigned, a mobile terminal performs one or more RACH procedures for timealigning the uplink component carriers. A RACH procedure requiresprocessing resources and introduces restrictions on uplink transmissionsthat can be performed in parallel by a mobile terminal. It may be thusdesirable to perform as few RACH procedures as possible. Adjusting thetransmit power based on the number of required RACH procedures canimprove the success probability of each of the required RACH procedures.Due to a higher success probability of the RACH procedures, the delayintroduced by the RACH procedures for uplink component carriers to betime aligned is reduced.

According to one exemplary embodiment, a user equipment could utilizethe transmit power of one or more RACH procedures that are not required(i.e. that are superfluous and thus not performed) for adjusting thetransmit power to perform only the required RACH procedures for timealigning the plural uplink component carriers improves the successprobability of each of the required RACH procedures.

The first, second and third aspect of this invention can be readilycombined with each other and may use the same priority/processing orderof the resource assignments in transport block generation (logicalchannel prioritization) and of uplink transmission on a physical randomaccess channel (PRACH) and power scaling of the transmissions of thegenerated transport blocks and of transmission on a physical randomaccess channel (PRACH) in the uplink.

According to one exemplary implementation of the invention in line withthe first and second aspect of the invention, a method for adjusting thetransmit power utilized by a mobile terminal for uplink transmissions isprovided, wherein the mobile terminal is configured with at least afirst and a second uplink component carrier. The mobile terminaldetermines a transmit power required for transmitting a transport blockP_(PUSCH)(i) via a physical uplink shared channel on the first uplinkcomponent carrier. Further, the mobile terminal determines a transmitpower required for transmitting a random access preamble P_(PRACH)(i)via a physical random access channel on the second uplink componentcarrier. Furthermore, the mobile terminal reduces the determinedtransmit power for the physical uplink shared channel transmissionand/or the physical random access channel transmission according to aprioritization between the transmit power for the physical uplink sharedchannel transmission and the transmit power for the physical randomaccess channel transmission and transmits the transport block on thefirst uplink component carrier and the random access preamble on thesecond uplink component carrier within a transmission time interval i,using the respective transmit powers.

In one exemplary implementation, the mobile terminal may furtherdetermine a transmit power required for transmitting another transportblock via an assigned physical uplink shared channel on a thirdcomponent carrier. The transmit powers for transmitting each transportblock P_(PUSCH) _(c) (i) are determined according to the correspondinguplink component carrier c where the uplink component carriers have apriority order. Further, the mobile terminal reduces the determinedtransmit power for transmitting each transport block w_(c)·P_(PUSCH)_(c) (i) according to the priority order, where w_(c)∈[0, . . . , 1];and transmits each transport block using the respective reduced transmitpower.

In a more detailed implementation, the transmit power for transmittingvia a physical uplink shared channel is prioritized over the transmitpower for transmitting via a physical random access channel. In thiscase, the mobile terminal first reduces the determined transmit powerP_(PRACH)(i) for transmitting the random access preamble via thephysical random access channel and then reduces the transmit power

$\sum\limits_{c}P_{{PUSCH}_{c}}$(i) for transmitting each transport block via the physical uplink sharedchannels on the uplink component carriers within the transmission timeinterval i.

Furthermore, in another exemplary embodiment of the invention, thetransmit power of physical random access channel transmissions isprioritized over the transmit power of physical uplink shared channeltransmissions. In this case, the mobile terminal reduces the transmitpower

$\sum\limits_{c}P_{{PUSCH}_{c}}$(i) for transmission via the physical uplink shared channels on theuplink component carriers, uses the determined transmit powerP_(PRACH)(i) for transmission via the physical random access channel anduses a non-reduced transmit power P_(PUCCH)(i) for transmitting on aphysical uplink control channel within the transmission time interval i.

In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the mobile terminalreduces the determined transmit powers such that the sum of thedetermined transmit powers is smaller or equal to a maximum transmitpower available P_(MAX) to the mobile terminal for transmitting on theuplink component carriers within the transmission time interval i.

In a further exemplary embodiment of the invention, the mobile terminalfurther determines a transmit power required for transmitting anotherrandom access preamble via a physical random access channel on a fourthuplink component carrier within the transmission time interval i. Thetransmit powers for transmitting each random access preamble P_(PRACH)_(c) (i) are determined according to the corresponding uplink componentcarrier c, where the uplink component carriers having a priority order.Further, the mobile terminal reduces the determined transmit powers fortransmitting each random access preamble w_(c)·P_(PRACH) _(c) (i)according to the priority order, where w_(c)∈[0, . . . , 1]; andtransmits each random access preamble using the respective reducedtransmit power.

In another more detailed implementation, each uplink component carrieris assigned a cell index and the mobile terminal reduces the determinedtransmit power for transmitting each random access preamblew_(c)·P_(PRACH) _(c) (i) based on the priority order given by the cellindexes of the uplink component carriers.

Furthermore, in another exemplary implementation of the invention, themobile terminal is configured with one uplink component carrier as theprimary component carrier and with any other uplink component carrier asa secondary component carrier. In this case, the mobile terminal reducesthe determined transmit power for transmitting each random accesspreamble w_(c)·P_(PRACH) _(c) (i), where the primary component carrieris prioritized over any other secondary component carrier.

According to another implementation of the invention, the mobileterminal reduces the transmit power for transmitting each random accesspreamble w_(c)·P_(PRACH) _(c) (i) is based on a flag for each randomaccess preamble. The flag indicates for each random access preamble tobe transmitted whether or not a request for transmitting the respectiverandom access preamble was previously received for the correspondinguplink component carrier by the terminal.

In another embodiment of the invention, the mobile terminal determinesthe transmit power for transmitting a random access preamble via arandom access channel on each of the second and the fourth componentcarrier by utilizing a first offset P_(0_PRACH), in case the uplinkcomponent carrier to be time aligned and uplink component carriersalready time aligned belong to a same timing advance group; and asecond, different offset P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) , in case the uplinkcomponent carrier to be time aligned and uplink component carriersalready time aligned belong to more than one timing advance groups.

In a more detailed implementation of the invention, the first offsetP_(0_PRACH) and the second offset P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) are signaledto the mobile terminal by a base station.

In a further exemplary embodiment, the mobile terminal determines thetransmit power for transmitting a random access preamble via a physicalrandom access channel on an uplink component carrier to be time alignedincludes re-utilizing a previously determined power ramping step N_(c)for the corresponding uplink component carrier or re-utilizing adifferent, previously determined power ramping step N_(¬c) for adifferent uplink component carrier The mobile terminal uses the powerramping step N_(c) and/or N_(¬c) for ramping the transmit power ofconsecutive transmissions of the random access preamble.

Furthermore, in a detailed implementation, the mobile terminaldetermines the transmit power for transmitting a random access preamblevia a physical random access channel on an uplink component carrier by:

P_(PRACH) _(c)(i)=min{P_(0_PRACH)−PL(i)+(N−1)Δ_(RACH)+Δ_(Preamble),P_(MAX)} whereN∈{N_(c),N_(¬c)}, in case the uplink component carrier to be timealigned and uplink component carriers already time aligned belong to asame timing advance group; and

P_(PRACH) _(c) (i)=min{P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple)−PL(i)+(N−1)Δ_(RACH)Δ_(Preamble),P_(MAX)} where N∈{N_(c),N_(¬c)}, incase the uplink component carrier to be time aligned and uplinkcomponent carriers already time aligned belong to more than one timingadvance groups.

In another embodiment of the invention, the mobile terminal adds a basestation dependent pre-scaling offset Δoffset_(c) that has been receivedby the mobile terminal form a base station for an uplink componentcarrier c to adjust the transmit power for transmitting random accesspreambles on the respective uplink component carrier.

Furthermore, in a detailed implementation of the invention, the mobileterminal determines transmit power for transmitting a random accesspreamble via a physical random access channel on an uplink componentcarrier by:

P_(PRACH) _(c)(i)=min{P_(0_PRACH)−PL(i)+(N−1)Δ_(RACH)+Δ_(Preamble)+Δoffset_(c),P_(MAX)}where N∈{N_(c),N_(¬c)}, in case the uplink component carrier to be timealigned and uplink component carriers already time aligned belong to asame timing advance group, and

P_(PRACH) _(c) (i)=min{P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple)−PL(i)+(N−1)Δ_(RACH)+Δ_(Preamble)+Δoffset_(c),P_(MAX)} whereN∈{N_(c),N_(¬c)}, in case the uplink component carrier to be timealigned and uplink component carriers already time aligned belong tomore than one timing advance groups.

According to another exemplary implementation of the invention in linewith the second and third aspect of the invention, a method foradjusting the transmit power used by a mobile terminal for one or moreRACH procedures is provided, where the mobile terminal is allowed RACHaccess on plural uplink component carriers. The mobile terminaldetermines, for uplink component carriers to be time aligned, the numberof RACH procedures required for time aligning the uplink componentcarriers. Further, the mobile terminal performs the determined number ofRACH procedures required for time aligning the uplink componentcarriers, wherein a transmit power for all of the one or more RACHprocedures is determined according to the determined number of requiredRACH procedures.

In a more advanced implementation, the mobile terminal determines thetransmit power for all of the one or more RACH procedures utilizing afirst offset P_(0_PRACH), case of determining one required RACHprocedure, and utilizing a second, different offset P_(0_PRACH)_(multiple) , in case of determining more than one required RACHprocedure, the second offset P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) having a highervalue than the first offset P_(0_PRACH).

According to another alternative embodiment, the mobile terminal isconfigured with one uplink component carrier as the primary componentcarrier and with any other uplink component carrier as a secondarycomponent carrier. The mobile terminal determines the transmit power forRACH procedures utilizing a first offset P_(0_PRACH), in case a RACHprocedure is to be performed on the primary component carrier, andutilizing a second, different offset P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) , in caseone or more RACH procedures are to be performed on the secondarycomponent carrier, the second offset P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) having ahigher value than the first offset P_(0_PRACH)

In a further implementation, the mobile terminal determines the numberof required RACH procedures based on a number of different timingadvance groups to which said uplink component carriers to be timealigned belong.

According to another implementation of the invention, each of therequired one or more RACH procedures is performed on uplink componentcarriers belonging to different timing advance groups among the uplinkcomponent carriers to be time aligned.

In a further embodiment, the identified number of required RACHprocedures is equal to the number of different timing advance groups ofthe plurality of uplink component carriers to be time aligned.

Furthermore, in another implementation, the uplink component carriers tobe time aligned are uplink component carriers activated at the mobileterminal.

In a more detailed implementation, the time alignment of the uplinkcomponent carriers comprises configuring a timing advance value pertiming advance group.

According to another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the numberof required RACH procedures corresponds to the number of timing advancegroups to which the uplink component carriers to be time aligned belong,excluding those timing advance groups for which the mobile terminal isalready time-aligned.

Furthermore, it should also be noted that of course the differentcriteria and rules outlined above could be combined arbitrarily witheach other to adjust the transmit power to be used by the mobileterminal for uplink transmissions.

According to another exemplary implementation of the invention in linewith the first and second aspect of the invention, a mobile terminal forcontrolling the transmit power for uplink transmissions is provided,wherein the mobile terminal is configured with at least a first and asecond uplink component carrier.

The mobile terminal comprises a processing unit for determining atransmit power required for transmitting a transport block P_(PUSCH) (i)via a physical uplink shared channel on the first uplink componentcarrier, and for determining a transmit power required for transmittinga random access preamble P_(PRACH)(i) via a physical random accesschannel on the second uplink component carrier. Further, the mobileterminal includes a power control unit for reducing the determinedtransmit power for the physical uplink shared channel transmissionand/or the physical random access channel transmission according to aprioritization between the transmit power for the physical uplink sharedchannel transmission and the transmit power for the physical randomaccess channel transmission. The mobile terminal has also a transmitterfor transmitting the transport block on the first uplink componentcarrier and the random access preamble on the second uplink componentcarrier within a transmission time interval i, using the respectivetransmit power.

According to a more detailed implementation of the invention, the mobileterminal further comprises a processing unit adapted to determine atransmit power required for transmitting another random access preamblevia a physical random access channel on a fourth uplink componentcarrier within the transmission time interval i, and the transmit powersfor transmitting each random access preamble P_(PRACH) _(c) (i) aredetermined according to the corresponding uplink component carrier c,the uplink component carriers having a priority order. The mobileterminal also has a power control unit adapted to reduce the determinedtransmit powers further includes reducing the determined transmit powersfor transmitting each random access preamble w_(c)·P_(PRACH) _(c) (i)according to the priority order, where w_(c)∈[0, . . . , 1]; and whereinthe transmitter is adapted to transmit each random access preamble usingthe respective reduced transmit power.

Another embodiment of the invention, in line with the second and thirdaspect of the invention, is providing a mobile terminal for adjustingthe transmit power used by a mobile terminal for one or more RACHprocedures, the mobile terminal being allowed access on plural uplinkcomponent carriers. The mobile terminal includes means for determining,for uplink component carriers to be time aligned, the number of RACHprocedures required for time aligning the uplink component carriers. Themobile terminal further comprises means for performing the determinednumber of RACH procedures required for time aligning the uplinkcomponent carriers, wherein a transmit power for all of the one or moreRACH procedures is determined according to the determined number ofrequired RACH procedures.

According to another embodiment of the invention, a base station for usewith the mobile terminal performing a method for adjusting the transmitpower for transmitting random access preambles via physical randomaccess channels on uplink component carriers is provided. The basestation includes a power control unit configured to signal an offsetP_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) to the mobile terminal, wherein the offsetP_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) is utilized by the mobile terminal fordetermining a transmit power for transmitting a random access preamblein case the uplink component carrier to be time aligned and uplinkcomponent carriers already time aligned belong to more than one timingadvance groups. The bases station also has a receiving unit forreceiving random access preambles on the uplink component carriers witha transmit power that has been determined by the mobile terminalutilizing the offset P_(0_PRACH_multiple).

In a exemplary detailed implementation, the base station furthercomprises a power control unit is further configured to signal anotheroffset P_(0_PRACH) to the mobile terminal, wherein the other offsetP_(0_PRACH) is utilized by the mobile terminal for determining atransmit power for a random access preamble in case the uplink componentcarrier to be time aligned and uplink component carriers already timealigned belong to a same timing advance group. The base station also hasa receiving unit is configured to receive random access preambles on theuplink component carriers with a transmit power that has been determinedby the mobile terminal utilizing the other offset P_(0_PRACH)

In a further exemplary embodiment of the invention, a base station foruse with the mobile terminal performing a method for adjusting thetransmit power for transmitting random access preambles via physicalrandom access channels on uplink component carriers is provided. Thebase station includes a power control unit for signaling a base stationdependent pre-scaling offset Δoffset_(c) for an uplink component carrierc to a mobile terminal to be added by the mobile terminal fordetermining a transmit power for transmissions of random accesspreambles on the uplink component carrier. Further, the base stationcomprises a receiving unit for receiving random access preambles on theuplink component carrier with a transmit power that has been determinedby the mobile terminal adding the base station dependent pre-scalingoffset Δoffset_(c) for the uplink component carrier c.

Another exemplary embodiment of the invention in line with the first andsecond aspect of this invention is related to a computer readable mediumstoring instructions that, when executed by a processor of a mobileterminal, cause the mobile terminal to adjust the transmit powerutilized by the mobile terminal for uplink transmissions, wherein themobile terminal is configured with at least a first and a second uplinkcomponent carrier, by determining a transmit power required fortransmitting a transport block P_(PUSCH)(i) via a physical uplink sharedchannel on the first uplink component carrier, and determining atransmit power required for transmitting a random access preambleP_(PRACH)(i) via a physical random access channel on the second uplinkcomponent carrier. Furthermore, the mobile terminal is caused to reducethe determined transmit power for the physical uplink shared channeltransmission and/or the physical random access channel transmissionaccording to a prioritization between the transmit power for thephysical uplink shared channel transmission and the transmit power forthe physical random access channel transmission, and to transmit thetransport block on the first uplink component carrier and the randomaccess preamble on the second uplink component carrier within atransmission time interval i, using the respective transmit power.

In another embodiment of the invention, which is in line with the secondand third aspect of the invention, the execution of the instructions onthe computer-readable medium by the processor cause the mobile terminalto adjust the transmit power used for one or more RACH procedures, themobile terminal being allowed access on plural uplink componentcarriers, by determining, for uplink component carriers to be timealigned, the number of RACH procedures required for time aligning theuplink component carriers. The execution of the instructions furthercause the mobile terminal to perform the determined number of RACHprocedures required for time aligning the uplink component carriers,wherein a transmit power for all of the one or more RACH procedures isdetermined according to the determined number of required RACHprocedures.

Another computer-readable medium according to a further embodiment ofthe invention stores instructions that, when executed by a processor ofa base station for use with the mobile terminal performing a method foradjusting the transmit power for transmitting random access preamblesvia physical random access channels on uplink component carriers, causethe base station to signal an offset P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) to themobile terminal, wherein the offset P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) is utilizedby the mobile terminal for determining a transmit power for a randomaccess preamble in case the uplink component carrier to be time alignedand uplink component carriers already time aligned belong to a sametiming advance group. Further, the base station is caused to receiverandom access preambles on the uplink component carriers with a transmitpower that has been determined by the mobile terminal utilizing theoffset P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) .

A further computer-readable medium according to another embodiment ofthe invention stores instructions that, when executed by a processor ofa base station for use with the mobile terminal performing a method foradjusting the transmit power for transmitting random access preamblesvia physical random access channels on uplink component carriers, causethe base station to signal a base station dependent pre-scaling offsetΔoffset_(c) for an uplink component carrier c to a mobile terminal to beadded by the mobile terminal for determining a transmit power fortransmissions of random access preambles on the uplink componentcarrier.

The execution of the instructions further cause the base station toreceive random access preambles on the uplink component carrier with atransmit power that has been determined by the mobile terminal addingthe base station dependent pre-scaling offset Δoffset_(c) for the uplinkcomponent carrier c.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

In the following the invention is described in more detail in referenceto the attached figures and drawings. Similar or corresponding detailsin the figures are marked with the same reference numerals.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary architecture of a 3GPP LTE system,

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary overview of the overall E-UTRAN architectureof LTE,

FIGS. 3 & 4 show an exemplary localized allocation and distributedallocation of the uplink bandwidth in a single carrier FDMA scheme,

FIGS. 5 & 6 show the 3GPP LTE-A (Release 10) Layer 2 structure withactivated carrier aggregation for the downlink and uplink, respectively,

FIG. 7 exemplifies the time alignment of an uplink component carrierrelative to a downlink component carrier by means of a timing advance asdefined for 3GPP LTE (Release 8/9),

FIG. 8 shows a RACH procedures as defined for 3GPP LTE (Release 8/9) inwhich contentions may occur, and

FIG. 9 shows a contention-free RACH procedure as defined for 3GPP LTE(Release 8/9),

FIG. 10 shows a flow chart of distributing a maximum available transmitpower P_(MAX) to the transport blocks to be transmitted within a TTIaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the invention,

FIG. 11 shows an exemplary scenario in which a user equipmentsaggregates two radio cells, one radio cell originating from an eNodeB,and the other radio cell originating from a Frequency Selective Repeater(FSR),

FIG. 12 shows an exemplary scenario in which a user equipmentsaggregates two radio cells, one radio cell originating from an eNodeB,and the other radio cell originating from a Remote Radio Head (RRH),

FIG. 13 exemplifies a different time alignment between a RACH and aPUSCH transmission assuming a timing advance for the PUSCH transmissionas defined for 3GPP LTE (Release 8/9),

FIG. 14 exemplifies a RACH configuration of a user equipment setup withmultiple uplink component carriers, in case the uplink componentcarriers belong to a same timing advance group,

FIG. 15 exemplifies a RACH configuration of a user equipment setup withmultiple uplink component carriers, in case the uplink componentcarriers belong to two timing advance groups,

FIG. 16 shows a flow chart of a transmit power adjustment procedure fordetermining transmit power for PRACH an PUSCH uplink transmissionsaccording to another embodiment of the invention,

FIG. 17 shows a flow chart of a transmit power adjustment procedure formultiple RACH procedures according to yet another embodiment of theinvention,

FIG. 18 shows a flow chart of a transmit power adjustment procedure formultiple RACH procedures according to an exemplary implementation of theembodiment of FIG. 17 of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following paragraphs will describe various embodiments of theinvention. For exemplary purposes only, most of the embodiments areoutlined in relation to an orthogonal single-carrier uplink radio accessscheme according to the LTE-A mobile communication system discussed inthe Technical Background section above. It should be noted that theinvention may be advantageously used for example in connection with amobile communication system such as the LTE-A communication systempreviously described, but the invention is not limited to its use inthis particular exemplary communication network.

The explanations given in the Technical Background section above areintended to better understand the mostly LTE-A specific exemplaryembodiments described herein and should not be understood as limitingthe invention to the described specific implementations of processes andfunctions in the mobile communication network. Nevertheless, theimprovements proposed herein may be readily applied in thearchitectures/systems described in the Technical Background section andmay in some embodiments of the invention also make use of standard andimproved procedures of theses architectures/systems.

The invention aims to provide an efficient and tight QoS control foruplink transmissions by a base station (eNodeB or Node B in the 3GPPcontext) in a scenario where a mobile terminal (user equipment in the3GPP context) is assigned multiple uplink resources in one transmissiontime interval (e.g. one or more sub-frames). The invention also providesan efficient utilization of the transmit power available to the mobileterminal for uplink transmissions in a TTI, even in cases where themobile terminal is power limited.

A consideration underlying this invention is to introduce a priorityorder for the uplink resource assignments (respectively for thetransport blocks corresponding thereto). This priority order isconsidered by the mobile terminal when generating the transport blocksfor uplink transmission and/or in the distribution of the transmit poweravailable to the mobile terminal for uplink transmissions in a TTI tothe respective transport blocks to be transmitted within the TTI. Thepriority order is sometimes also referred to as the processing order.This is—as will become more apparent from the following—because thepriority order defined for the uplink resource assignments (respectivelyfor the transport blocks corresponding thereto) is implying the order inwhich the uplink resource assignments (respectively for the transportblocks corresponding thereto) are processed.

One aspect of the invention is the prioritization of the powerallocation for individual transport blocks corresponding to pluraluplink resource assignments within power control. This aspect isparticularly applicable to situations where the mobile terminal is powerlimited and ensures an efficient distribution of the available transmitpower to the different transport blocks. According to this aspect of theinvention, the order of processing the uplink resource assignments(priority order) on the uplink component carriers is used to determinepower scaling for the power allocation of the individual transportblocks to be transmitted on the respective component carriers in theuplink. According to this aspect of the invention, a per-componentcarrier, respectively per-transport block or per-resource assignment,power scaling is applied.

In power limited situations, the mobile terminal reduces the transmitpower for the transmission of each of the transport blocks according tothe priority of the respective transport block given by the priorityorder, such that the total transmit power spent for the transmissions ofthe transport blocks becomes smaller or equal to a maximum transmitpower available to the mobile terminal for transmitting the transportblocks in the uplink within a given TTI.

According to one exemplary implementation the transmit power scaling isreducing the transmit power and is taking into account the priority ofthe resource assignment of a respective transport block (or componentcarrier on which the respective transport block is to be transmitted),as given by the priority order in that transmission of transport blockshaving high priority should be least effected by the transmit powerreduction. Advantageously, the lower (higher) the priority of theresource assignment/component carrier according to the priority order,the larger (smaller) the power reduction applied to the transmit powerfor the transport block required by its corresponding uplink resourceassignment.

As mentioned before, the power scaling may be ideally configured suchthat the transmission of high priority transport blocks should be notreduced where possible. Instead the transmit power reduction to meet thea maximum transmit power available to the mobile terminal fortransmitting the transport blocks in the uplink within a given TTIshould be first tried to be obtained by limiting the transmit power oftransmissions of low priority transport blocks.

Moreover, in a more advanced implementation, the power control mechanismin the mobile terminal ensures that the control information to besignaled on a physical uplink control channel, such as the PUCCH inLTE-A, do not undergo power scaling, but only transmissions on thephysical uplink shared channel, i.e. transport blocks, transmittedconcurrently to the control information, such as the PUCCH in LTE-A,within the same TTI is subject to power scaling. In other words, thepower control mechanism is designed to assign the remainder of thedifference between the transmit power available to the mobile terminalfor uplink transmissions within a TTI and the transmit power requiredfor the signaling of control information on the physical uplink controlchannel is distributed on a per-transport block basis to the transportblocks on the physical uplink shared channel taking into account thepriority order of the transport blocks.

A second aspect of the invention is the prioritization of the powerallocation for simultaneous uplink transmissions via different physicalchannels (i.e. there are multiple uplink transmissions within the sametransmission time interval). Examples for physical channels allowinguplink transmissions are physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), thephysical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and the physical random accesschannel (PRACH). Prioritizing the power allocation for uplinktransmission via different physical channels allows assigning individualtransmit powers. This power allocation may be independent from thecomponent carrier on which a respective uplink transmission is sent.

According to this second aspect different transmit power levels may beused for simultaneous uplink transmissions via a physical random accesschannel (PRACH) and via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).Alternatively, the second aspect of the invention allows to toindividually scale the transmit power of simultaneous uplinktransmissions via a physical random access channel (PRACH) and via aphysical uplink control channel (PUCCH). Scaling transmit power foruplink transmissions based on a prioritization of the physical channelsmay be for example used to improve the SINR of the respective uplinktransmission via the prioritized physical channel. For instance, areduction of the transmit power for uplink transmissions based on theprioritization of the physical channels may allow the mobile terminal tomeet a given power constraint, if the mobile terminal in a power limitedsituation.

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention that is in line with thesecond aspect of the invention, the transmit power for physical uplinkshared channel (PUSCH) transmissions and/or physical random accesschannel (PRACH) transmissions is reduced according to a respectiveprioritization of the corresponding the channels. In this context,either the transmit power for physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)transmissions is prioritized over the transmit power for physical randomaccess channel (PRACH) transmissions or vice versa.

Advantageously, the lower (higher) the priority of the physical channeltransmission, the larger (smaller) the power reduction applied to thetransmit power for transmitting via the physical channel.

Ideally, in order to meet a transmit power constraint in a power limitedsituation, it may be tried to first limit the transmit power for lowpriority physical channel transmissions, and then—if the transmit powerconstraint is still not met—also the transmit power for physical channeltransmissions of higher priority may be limited.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the prioritization of thepower allocation for simultaneous uplink transmissions via differentphysical channels can be advantageously combined with the first aspectof the invention of prioritizing the power allocation for individualtransport blocks corresponding to plural uplink resource assignmentswithin power control.

When the user equipment is configured with multiple uplink componentcarriers belonging to more than one timing advance group, the userequipment may be required to perform more than one RACH procedure fortime aligning the respective uplink component carriers within the sametransmission time interval. In other words, the user equipment may berequired to transmit more than one random access preamble via the PRACHchannel within the same TTI. Accordingly, in a further more advancedembodiment of the invention, a prioritization of the power allocationfor the transmission of RACH preamble of individual RACH procedures isperformed, in case multiple PRACH procedures are to be performedsimultaneously.

In a further alternative embodiment of the invention, the priority orderaccording to which the user equipment is determining the transmit powerof the RACH preambles for multiple RACH procedures is linked to theindices assigned to the configured uplink component carriers. Eachcomponent carrier may be assigned an individual cell index or carrierindex (CI), and the priority order may be defined according to the cellindices or carrier indices of the component carriers on which the uplinkresources are assigned.

In an exemplary and more advanced implementation, the eNodeB may assignthe cell indices or carrier indices, respectively, such that thehigher/lower the priority of the component carrier the higher/lower thecell index or component carrier index of the component carrier. In thiscase, the user equipment should determine the transmit power fortransmissions of the RACH preambles for multiple RACH procedures indecreasing carrier indicator order.

In a further alternative embodiment of the invention, the priority orderfor determining the transmit power for RACH preamboles of multiple RACHprocedures depends on the type of component carrier. As described abovethere is one primary uplink component carrier (PCC) configured per-userequipment and potentially multiple secondary uplink component carriers(SCC). According to this embodiment a user equipment always assigns thetransmit power for transmitting the RACH preamble that is part of a RACHprocedure for the PCC, before assigning a transmit power of the RACHpreamble of a RACH procedure to be performed on any other uplinkresource assignments within a TTI. Regarding the transmit powerassignments for the RACH preambles of the RACH procedures to beperformed on SCC(s), there are several options. For example, theassignment of transmit power for performing RACH procedures on theSCC(s) could be left to user equipment implementation. Alternatively thetransmit power assignment for performing RACH procedures on the SCC(s)could be treated in the order of the assigned cell indices or carrierindices.

A third aspect of the invention is to adjust the transmit power used forin random access (RACH) procedures based on the number of RACHprocedures required for time aligning plural uplink component carriers.Depending on the number of uplink component carriers that are to be timealigned, a mobile terminal performs one or more RACH procedures for timealigning the uplink component carriers. A RACH procedure requiresprocessing resources and introduces restrictions on uplink transmissionsthat can be performed in parallel by a mobile terminal. It may be thusdesirable to perform as few RACH procedures as possible. Adjusting thetransmit power for the RACH preamble(s) based on the number of requiredRACH procedures can improve the success probability of each of therequired RACH procedures. Due to a higher success probability of theRACH procedures, the delay introduced by the RACH procedures for uplinkcomponent carriers to be time aligned is reduced.

According to one exemplary embodiment of the invention, a user equipmentcould “reutilize” the transmit power of one or more RACH procedures thatare not required (i.e. that are superfluous and thus not performed) foradjusting the transmit power to perform only the required RACHprocedures for time aligning the plural uplink component carriersimproves the success probability of each of the required RACHprocedures.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the user equipmentincreases the transmit power used for transmitting the RACH preambles,when plural RACH procedures are required for time aligning the pluraluplink component carriers. For example, the user equipment uses a firstoffset P_(0_PRACH), in case there is only one RACH procedure to bepreformed, and utilizing a second, different offset P_(0_PRACH)_(multiple) in case there is more than one RACH procedure to beperformed. Advantageously, the second offset P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) hasa higher value than the first offset P_(0_PRACH), which may improve thesuccess probability when performing plural RACH procedures.

In a further, alternative embodiment of the invention, the userequipment may individually increase the transmit power used for the RACHpreambles in the RACH procedures depending on the type of componentcarrier on which a respective one of the RACH procedures is performed.It may be assumed for exemplary purposes that there is one primarycomponent carrier (PCC) configured per user equipment and optionally oneor more secondary component carriers (SCC). Accordingly, a userequipment would determine a transmit power for the preamble of a RACHprocedure utilizing a first offset P_(0_PRACH), in case the RACHprocedure is to be performed on the PCC. The user equipment wouldutilize a second, different offset P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) , in case theRACH procedure is to be performed on a secondary component carrier. Asnoted previously, the second offset P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) may heave ahigher value than the first offset P_(0_PRACH).

In an exemplary implementation of the third aspect of the invention,there are several options for determining (or limiting) the number ofrequired RACH procedures for plural uplink component carriers to be timealigned. For example, the determination of the number of required RACHprocedures could be left to user equipment implementation. Anotheroption or alternative is that the user equipment determines the numberof required RACH procedures based on the number of timing advance groupsto which the plural uplink component carrier belong. As described above,an eNodeB may group component carriers experiencing a similarpropagation delay into the same timing advance group. Since thepropagation delay of all component carriers within a given timingadvance group is equal, only one single timing advance needs to beconfigures per timing advance group, which means that only one RACHprocedure is required per timing advance group for time aligning allcomponent carriers thereof. Accordingly, a user equipment obtaininginformation on the timing advance groups determines the number ofrequired RACH procedure by performing only one RACH procedure per timingadvance group.

Considering a situation where a RACH procedure is required for eachtiming advance group to which at least one uplink component carrier tobe time aligned belongs, the number of required RACH procedures is equalto the number of different timing advance groups of the plurality ofuplink component carriers to be time aligned.

A user equipment may set the timing advance of each of the one or moreuplink component carriers to be time aligned and belonging to one timingadvance group using a timing advance value obtained from eNodeB afterperforming one single RACH procedure for one of the uplink componentcarriers to be time aligned of the respective timing advance group.

Considering for exemplary purposes that the user equipment is configuredwith uplink component carriers that are already time aligned (e.g. aRACH procedure was performed an earlier point in time), a further RACHprocedure for acquiring a timing advance value does not need to beperformed for those timing advance groups for which a timing advancevalue is already configured, i.e. for those timing advance groups whichcomprise one of the already time aligned uplink component carrier.Accordingly, the number of required RACH corresponds to the number oftiming advance groups for which no timing advance value is configured,or in other words, the number of required RACH procedures is equal tothe number of timing advance groups not comprising an already timealigned uplink component carrier. Regarding the component carriers to betime aligned and that belong to a timing advance group for which atiming advance is already configured, the user equipment simplyconfigures the timing advance of each of the one or more uplinkcomponent carriers according to the timing advance set for therespective timing advance group to which the respective componentcarrier belongs.

As already indicated above, an aspect of the invention is thedistribution of the transmit power to the transmissions of the generatedtransport blocks on the assigned resources on the uplink componentcarriers. In this context situations where the mobile terminal is powerlimited are of particular interest. When implementing the invention in acommunication system using carrier aggregation in the uplink, likeLTE-A, and assuming a per-component carrier power control, anotherembodiment of the invention is proposing the prioritization of thetransmit power allocation on the physical uplink shared channel for theuplink component carriers for cases where the mobile terminal is in apower limited situation. This proposed prioritization of the transmitpower available to the mobile terminal is capable of addressing thedifferent QoS of the data/uplink component carriers.

Power limitation denotes the situation where the total transmit power ofthe mobile terminal that would be required for transmitting thetransport blocks on uplink component carriers within a single TTIaccording to the uplink resource assignments is exceeding the maximumtransmit power available to the mobile terminal for uplink transmissionsP_(MAX). The maximum transmit power available to the mobile terminal foruplink transmissions P_(MAX) thereby depends on the maximum powercapabilities of the mobile terminal and the maximum transmit powerallowed by the network (i.e. configured by the eNodeB).

FIG. 10 shows a flow chart of distributing a maximum available transmitpower P_(MAX) to the transport blocks to be transmitted within a TTIaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the invention. In this exemplaryembodiment and the following examples below a LTE-A based communicationsystem using carrier aggregation in the uplink, and assuming aper-component carrier power control will be assumed. Furthermore, it isalso assumed that the transmission power of the PUCCH (i.e. the controlinformation) is prioritized over PUSCH transmissions (i.e. the transportblocks generated according to the uplink resource assignments), i.e.PUSCH transmit power is first scaled down in a power limited situation.

The mobile terminal first receives 1001 multiple uplink resourceassignments for one TTI using its receiver unit, and a processing unitof the mobile terminal determines 1002 their priority order. Thepriority order of the uplink resource assignments may be determinedaccording to one of the various exemplary options discussed herein.

Furthermore, the mobile terminal's transport block generation unitgenerates 1003 the transport blocks according to the uplink resourceassignments. This transport block generation may be again implementedaccording to one of the various exemplary options outlined herein.Furthermore, in another alternative implementation, the transport blockfor each component carrier may be generated according to thecorresponding uplink resource assignment by performing the known LTERel. 8 logical channel prioritization for each uplink resourceassignment, respectively uplink component carrier.

The mobile terminal's processing unit further determines 1004 for eachof the generated transport blocks the transmit power that would berequired/implied by their respective uplink resource assignmentsaccording to the power control, i.e. required transmission power isgiven by power control formula. For example, the mobile terminal may useformula (1) as provided in the Technical Background section to determinethe transmit power that would be implied for the transmission of each ofthe transport blocks on the uplink component carriers by thecorresponding uplink resource assignment. In this example, the mobileterminal is considered power limited for the transmissions of thetransport blocks within the given TTI. The mobile terminal may forexample determine its power limitation by comparing the sum of therequired transmit powers for the transport blocks to the maximumtransmit power available to the mobile terminal for uplink transmissionsP_(MAX) minus the transmit power required for control signaling on thePUCCH P_(PUCCH) in the same TTI, and determining thereby that the sum ofthe required transmit powers for the transport blocks exceeds themaximum transmit power available to the mobile terminal for uplinktransmissions P_(MAX) minus the transmit power required for controlsignaling on the PUCCH P_(PUCCH) in the same TTI.

In order not to exceed the maximum transmit power available to themobile terminal for uplink transmissions P_(MAX) minus the transmitpower required for control signaling on the PUCCH P_(PUCCH) in the sameTTI, the mobile terminal needs to reduce the uplink transmit power forthe transmission of all or some of the transport blocks. There areseveral options how this power reduction, also referred to as powerscaling, can be implemented done. In the exemplary flow chart shown inFIG. 10, the mobile terminal determines 1005 next a power reduction foreach transmission of a respective transport block such that the sum ofthe reduced transmit power for each transmission of the transport blocks(i.e. the transmit power obtained for each respective transmission of atransport block when applying 1006 the determined respective powerreduction to the respective required transmit power as determined instep 1004) becomes equal to or smaller than the maximum transmit poweravailable to the mobile terminal for uplink transmissions P_(MAX) minusthe transmit power required for control signaling on the PUCCH P_(PUCCH)in the same TTI. The transmit power control unit of the mobile terminalapplies 1006 the determined respective power reduction to the respectiverequired transmit power as determined in step 1004 and transmits 1007the transport blocks on the assigned uplink resources on the componentcarriers within the given TTI using the reduced transmit power.

The power reduction or power scaling may be implemented as part of thetransmit power control functionality provided by the mobile terminal.The power control functionality may be considered as a function of thephysical layer of the mobile terminal. It may be assumed that thephysical layer has no idea about logical channel to transport blockmapping, respectively the logical channel to component carrier mapping,since the MAC layer of the mobile terminal performs the multiplexing ofthe logical channel data for multiple component carriers. However, powerscaling of the transmissions of the transport blocks (i.e. of the PUSCH)based on uplink component carrier priority (respectively the priority ofthe uplink resource assignments assigning resources thereon) isdesirable to be able to adequately support delay sensitive traffic in acarrier aggregation setting.

More in particular, it is desirable that high QoS data within thetransport blocks transmitted on the PUSCH is scaled less compared to lowQoS data which can tolerate more retransmissions. Therefore according toone exemplary embodiment of the invention, the power scaling of thetransmissions of the transport blocks on the PUSCH (see steps 1005, and1006) advantageously considers the processing order of the uplinkresource assignments, which may be considered equivalent to the priorityorder of the component carriers on which they assign resources. Sinceboth the processing order of uplink resource assignments as well as thepower scaling has an impact on the transmission quality experienced bylogical channels, it is desirable to have some interaction between theprioritization of the uplink resource assignments in the transport blockgeneration in the MAC layer of the mobile terminal (see for example step1003) and the power scaling functionality in the physical layer of themobile terminal (see steps 1005 and 1006).

This interaction may be for example obtained by the power scalingfunction provided in the physical layer using the same priority order ofthe uplink resource assignments for power scaling of PUSCH transmissionsas used in the MAC layer for determining the processing order of theuplink resource assignments in the generation of the transport blocks.In one exemplary implementation, the mobile terminal scales down therequired transmit powers (see step 1004) for the transport blocks on thePUSCH in the reverse processing order of the uplink resourceassignments. Basically the mobile terminal's power control unit startsscaling down the required transmit power for the transmission of thetransport block corresponding to the lowest priority uplink resourceassignment first, next the terminal's power control unit scales down therequired transmit power for the transmission of the transport blockcorresponding to the second lowest priority uplink resource assignment,etc. If necessary the transmit power of one or more transport blocks maybe scaled down to zero, i.e. the mobile terminal performs DTX on thegiven component carrier(s).

In one further exemplary implementation, the required transmit power fora transmission of the transport block is scaled down to zero, beforepower scaling the next transport block. Hence, power control unit startsscaling down the required transmit power for the transmission of thetransport block corresponding to the lowest priority uplink resourceassignment down to zero (if necessary), and if the transmit power needsto be further reduced, the terminal's power control unit scales down therequired transmit power for the transmission of the transport blockcorresponding to the second lowest priority uplink resource assignmentagain down to zero (if necessary), etc.

The power reduction/scaling of the transmit power may be for exampleimplemented as follows in a LTE-A system. In one exemplaryimplementation, the eNodeB signals a weight factor w_(c) for eachcomponent carrier c to user equipment that is applied to the PUSCHtransmission of a transport block on the respective component carrier.When the user equipment is power limited, its power control unit scalesthe weighted sum of the transmit power for all PUSCH transmissions onthe component carriers on which resources have been assigned. This maybe realized by calculating a scaling factor s such that the maximumtransmit power available to the mobile terminal for uplink transmissionsP_(MAX) is not exceed. The scaling factors can be determined fromFormula (2):

$\begin{matrix}{{{P_{PUCCH}(i)} + {s \cdot {\sum\limits_{c}{w_{c} \cdot {P_{{PUSCH}_{c}}(i)}}}}} \leq P_{MAX}} & (2)\end{matrix}$where s denotes the scaling factor and w_(c) the weight factor forcomponent carrier c. P_(PUCCH(i)) denotes the transmit power requiredfor the control signaling on the PUCCH within TTI i, and P_(PUSCH) _(c)(i) denotes the transmit power of a transport block to be transmitted onthe PUSCH of component carrier c within TTI i (see step 1004 and formula(1)). Apparently, scaling factors can be determined as:

$\begin{matrix}{s \leq \frac{P_{MAX} - {P_{PUCCH}(i)}}{\sum\limits_{c}{w_{c} \cdot P_{{PUSCH}_{c}{(i)}}}}} & (3)\end{matrix}$

The weight factor w_(c) of the component carriers may for exampleconsider the QoS of the data transmitted on a specific componentcarrier.

In one more advanced implementation, it may be assured that thetransport block transmitted on the PUSCH of the uplink PCC is notscaled. This may be for example realized by the eNodeB defining theweight factor w_(c) for the uplink PCC to 1/s. Alternatively, thefollowing relation may be used to determine the scaling factor s onlyfor component carriers other than the uplink PCC:

$\begin{matrix}{{{P_{PUCCH}(i)} + {P_{{PUSCH}\_{PCC}}(i)} + {s \cdot {\sum\limits_{c}{w_{c} \cdot {P_{{{PUSCH}\_{SCC}}_{c}}(i)}}}}} \leq P_{MAX}} & (4)\end{matrix}$so that:

$\begin{matrix}{s \leq \frac{P_{MAX} - {P_{PUCCH}(i)} - {P_{{PUSCH}\_{PCC}}(i)}}{\sum\limits_{c}{w_{c} \cdot {P_{{{PUSCH}\_{SCC}}_{c}}(i)}}}} & (5)\end{matrix}$

where P_(PUSCH_PCC)(i) is the transmit power required for thetransmission of the transport block to be transmitted on the uplink PCC(see step 1004 and formula (1)), while P_(PUSCH_SCC) _(c) (i) is thetransmit power required for the transmission of the transport block tobe transmitted on other the uplink SCCs (see step 1004 and formula (1)).

In one further exemplary embodiment of the invention, when generatingthe transport blocks, the user equipment may process the uplink resourceassignments in decreasing order of the weight factors w_(c). Hence, thepriority order may be given by the weighting factors w_(c). The mobileterminal may start processing with the uplink resource assignment for anuplink component carrier which is assigned the highest weight factorw_(c). Essentially, the highest weight factor w_(c) corresponds tohighest priority uplink component carrier respectively uplink resourceassignment in this embodiment.

In case the same weight factor w_(c) is applied to multiple uplinkcomponent carriers, the processing order may be left to user equipmentimplementation. Alternatively in case of same weight factor w_(c), theprocessing order may also be determined based on the downlinktransmission timing of the uplink resource assignments (as discussedabove) or based on the carrier index (CI) of corresponding componentcarriers.

In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the power scaling bythe power control unit of the mobile terminal depends on type of acomponent carrier on which the respective transport block is to betransmitted. The power assignment to the PUSCH transmission of atransport block on the uplink PCC which carries high priority traffic isprioritized over other PUSCH transmissions on the uplink SCC(s). Powerallocation, respectively, the amount of power reduction/scaling on otheruplink component carriers, i.e. uplink SCC(s), may be left to userequipment implementation. For example, regarding the remaining uplinkSCC(s), the user equipment could multiplexes QoS sensitive data on acomponent carrier of its choice and is allowed to prioritize powerallocation of this component carrier relative to other uplink SCC(s).

In a communication system using carrier aggregation, the mobileterminals may also be allowed to perform random access on a componentcarrier, while transmitting scheduled data (transport blocks) on othercomponent carriers. For a 3GPP based system like LTE-A, it may thus bepossible to that the user equipment is performing a random accesschannel (RACH) access on one component carrier, while transmittingPUSCH/PUCCH simultaneously on other component carriers. The userequipment may thus transmit a RACH preamble, i.e. a transmission on thephysical random access channel (PRACH), and in the same TTI alsotransmit data on the PUSCH and/or PUCCH. A potential use case forconcurrent PRACH and PUCCH/PUSCH transmission is the situation whereuser equipment is out-of sync on one uplink component carrier, whereasit's still uplink synchronized on other uplink component carrier. Inorder to regain uplink synchronization for the “out-of-sync componentcarrier” the user equipment would make a RACH access, e.g. ordered byPDCCH. Furthermore, also in cases where no dedicated scheduling requestchannel is configured for a user equipment on the PUCCH, the userequipment may perform a RACH access in order to request uplinkresources, in case new data is arrived in the UE buffer.

In these cases, according to another embodiment of the invention, thetransmit power for the RACH access (i.e. the transmission of the RACHpreamble on the PRACH) is not subject power control by the accessnetwork. Nevertheless, in this embodiment the transmit power for thePRACH transmission is considered when power scaling is applied by themobile terminal in power limited situations. Hence, in case of aconcurrent PRACH transmission and PUCCH/PUSCH transmission, the transmitpowers for PRACH, PUSCH and PUCCH within a TTI should fulfill therelation:

$\begin{matrix}{{{P_{PUCCH}(i)} + {\sum\limits_{c}{P_{{PUSCH}_{c}}(i)}} + {P_{PRACH}(i)}} \leq P_{MAX}} & (6)\end{matrix}$where P_(PRACH)(i) is the transmit power for the transmission on thePRACH in TTI i, while in case of power scaling being necessary due topower limitation, the following relation may be in one exemplaryscenario to be met:

$\begin{matrix}{{{P_{PUCCH}(i)} + {s \cdot {\sum\limits_{c}{w_{c} \cdot {P_{{PUSCH}_{c}}(i)}}}} + {P_{PRACH}(i)}} \leq P_{MAX}} & (7)\end{matrix}$

In a more detailed exemplary implementation, the initial preambletransmission power setting (i.e. the setting of P_(PRACH)) may be basedon an user equipment's open-loop estimation with full compensation ofthe path loss. This may ensure that the received power of the RACHpreambles is independent of the path-loss. The eNodeB may also configurean additional power offset for the PRACH, depending for example on thedesired received SINR, the measured uplink interference and noise levelin the time-frequency slots allocated to RACH preambles, and possibly onthe preamble format. Furthermore, the eNodeB may optionally configurepreamble power ramping so that the transmit power P_(PRACH)(i) for eachretransmitted preamble, i.e. in case the PRACH transmission attempt wasnot successfully, is increased by a fixed step.

There are different alternatives for the power scaling for the case ofconcurrent PRACH and PUCCH/PUSCH transmission. One option is that thePRACH transmission power P_(PRACH)(i) is prioritized over the PUSCHtransmission power

$\sum\limits_{c}P_{{PUSCH}_{c}}$(i), similar to the PUCCH transmit power P_(PUCCH)(i). This option isshown in relation (7) above.

Alternatively, another option is to prioritize the PUCCH/PUSCHtransmissions over PRACH transmissions. In this case the user equipmentwould first scale down the transmit power P_(PRACH)(i) of the PRACH andthen subsequently scale down the transmit power

$\sum\limits_{c}P_{{PUSCH}_{c}}$(i) of the PUSCH (if necessary).

In a third option, no concurrent transmission of PRACH and PUCCH/PUSCHis allowed. Hence, in this case the user equipment drops either thePUCCH/PUSCH transmission or PRACH transmission. Since the timing offsetis different between PRACH and PUCCH/PUSCH, the full utilization of thePower Amplifier (PA) is rather difficult.

In other words, a prioritization between the transmit power for a PUSCHtransmission and a transmit power for the PRACH transmission (i.e. thetransmission of a RACH preamble) defines how a user equipment performspower control when transmitting on different physical channels within asame transmission time interval.

According to an embodiment of the invention, a user equipment usesdifferent transmit power levels for simultaneous uplink transmissionsvia a PRACH and via a PUSCH. By using different power levels, the userequipment may meet a given power constraint, as will be exemplarilyillustrated below with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 16.

For adjusting the transmit power utilized by a user equipment for uplinktransmissions, the user equipment first determines a priority for PRACHand PUSCH transmissions (see step 1601). Further, the user equipmentdetermines the transmit power for the PUSCH transmission (see step 1602)and for the PRACH transmission (see step 1603) to be performed in thesame transmission time interval. In particular, these power levels maybe determined based on the uplink component carrier on which each of thetransmission is to be performed. It should be apparent that a PRACH andPUSCH transmission to occur in a same sub-frame are to be performed ondifferent uplink component carriers (i.e. by a user equipment supportingcarrier aggregation). This user equipment may be an LTE-A userequipment.

Then, the user equipment reduces the determined transmit power for thePUSCH transmission and/or the PRACH transmission (see step 1604). Thispower reduction is performed according to a prioritization between thetransmit power for the PUSCH transmission and the transmit power for thePRACH transmission. By reducing the transmit power according to themaximum available transmit power of the user equipment, the userequipment may be adapted to meet a given power constraint in a powerlimited situation. Thereafter, the user equipment applies the determinepower reduction to determined PRACH and PUSCH transmit power (see step1605) and transmits the PRACH and PUSCH transmission at the reducedtransmit power on the respective uplink component carrier (see step1606).

A user equipment supporting carrier aggregation may simultaneouslyperform a RACH access while transmitting PUSCH/PUCCH on other componentcarriers. In other words a user equipment may encounter situations whereit transmits a RACH preamble, i.e. PRACH transmission, and in the sameTTI also transmit PUSCH and/or PUCCH. Simultaneous PRACH and PUCCH/PUSCHtransmissions may for example occur in a situation where a userequipment is uplink out-of sync on one component carrier, whereas it'sstill uplink synchronized on other uplink component carrier. To regainuplink synchronization the user equipment performs a RACH access, e.g. acontention-free RACH access ordered by PDCCH for the component carrierbeing out-of sync. Furthermore when no dedicated scheduling requestchannel is configured for a user equipment on PUCCH, the user equipmentmay also initiate a RACH access in order to request uplink resource, forexample in case new data arrives in the user equipment buffer.

In LTE, uplink power control, as described in the Technical Backgroundsection herein, is defined for the Physical Uplink Shared Channel(PUSCH), Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) and the SoundingReference Signals (SRSs) giving the impression that is not applied forthe Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PRACH). Nevertheless, it isnecessary to consider PRACH transmission when power scaling needs to beused due to power limitations.

Conventionally, only PUCCH, PUSCH with multiplexed uplink controlinformation (UCI) and PUSCH are considered for the power limitationcase, where PUCCH is given the highest priority over PUSCH. A PUSCHtransmission having multiplexed UCI is considered of higher prioritythan a PUSCH transmission without (w/o) multiplexed UCI and is thereforeprioritized. This yields the following priority order:PUCCH>PUSCH with UCI>PUSCH without UCI

Further, the initial power setting for transmission of a RACH preamblemay be based on an open-loop estimation with full compensation of thepath loss. This would allow ensuring that the received power of the RACHpreamble at the eNodeB is independent from the path-loss.

According to a more detailed embodiment of the invention, the eNodeBconfigures for RACH transmissions an additional power offset to beapplied in addition to the power determined from the conventionalopen-loop power control mechanism. Exemplary implementations fordetermining the power offset for RACH transmissions may be based on thedesired received SINR, on the measured uplink interference and noiselevel in the time-frequency slots allocated to RACH preambles, and onthe preamble format.

According to another detailed embodiment of the invention, the eNodeBmay reconfigure the preamble power ramping so that the transmission foreach retransmitted preamble, i.e. in case the PRACH transmission attemptwas not successfully, is increased by a fixed step.

In other words, there are different solutions to implement the aspect ofthe invention to perform power scaling for the case of simultaneousPRACH and PUCCH/PUSCH transmission.

According to one implementation of the invention, the PRACH transmissionpower is prioritized over the PUSCH transmission power, similar to thePUCCH transmit power. This yields the following priority order:PUCCH>PRACH>PUSCH with UCI>PUSCH without UCI

A further implementation of the invention provides an additionaladvantage when prioritizing PUSCH with multiplexed UCI over a PRACHtransmission. PUSCH with multiplexed UCI include viable time criticalinformation. Accordingly, a respective priority order can be implementedas follows:PUCCH>PUSCH with UCI>PRACH>PUSCH without UCI

In yet another implementation of the invention PUCCH/PUSCH transmissionsare prioritized over PRACH. In this case the user equipment first scalesdown the transmit power for a PRACH transmission and then subsequentlyscales down the transmit power for a PUSCH transmission (if necessary).A priority order may be specified as follows:PUCCH>PUSCH with UCI>PUSCH without UCI>PRACH

The above described implementations of the invention are compatible withdifferent configurations of user equipments. For example, a userequipment may be configured with uplink component carriers belonging tomore than one timing advance (TA) group, where the user equipment hasonly one power amplifier (PA). Alternatively, the user equipment may beconfigured with plural uplink component carriers belonging to more thanone TA group, where for each TA group of uplink component carriers aseparate power amplifier (PA) is provided.

In the exemplary configuration of a user equipment operating multipleuplink component carriers belonging to more than one TA group with justone power amplifier (PA), the user equipment has to ensure that noconcurrent transmission of PRACH and PUCCH/PUSCH occur. Animplementation of such a user equipment would need to drop eitherPUCCH/PUSCH or PRACH transmission. This is due to the fact that thetiming offsets between PRACH and PUCCH/PUSCH are different and, similarto HSUPA's HS-DPCCH and DPCCH/DPDCH case, a full utilization of thePower Amplifier (PA) is rather difficult.

A further embodiment of the invention relates to the prioritization ofmultiple RACH transmissions within one TTI.

An according implementation of the invention of is a user equipmentdeciding which of several RACH transmissions is to prioritize based onan order according to the cell index of the corresponding uplinkcomponent carriers on which the PRACH preamble shall be transmitted. Inthis implementation, the highest priority may be assigned to the PRACHtransmission on the uplink component carrier with the lowest cell index.

Another implementation of the invention is a user equipmentdistinguishing between RACH procedures initiated by the user equipmentand RACH procedures that are ordered by eNodeB with a PDCCH order (alsoreferred to as contention-free RACH access). In this implementation,RACH procedures ordered by an eNodeB are assigned higher priority thanthose initiated by the user equipment.

Furthermore, both aforementioned implementations of priority schemes canbe combined. In this case the user equipment first ranks RACH proceduresbased on PDCCH order or UE initiation and then ranks RACH procedures ofboth groups according to the cell index of corresponding componentcarriers.

As indicated earlier, it is another detailed embodiment of the inventionto reconfigures the RACH preamble power ramping procedure performed by auser equipment so that the transmission for each retransmitted preamble,i.e. in case the PRACH transmission attempt was not successfully, isincreased by a fixed step.

In case that user equipment aggregates plural uplink component carriersform more than a single TA group where multiple RACH procedures becomenecessary. One example may be a handover, where user equipment needs toapply carrier aggregation with activated carriers in the target eNodeB.In this case part of the handover procedure is to time align all TAgroups with activated component carriers. If this is done consecutivelythis introduces additional delay, but also simultaneous RACH proceduresincrease delay as most likely RACH opportunities on different uplinks insecondary cells will be set slightly apart from each other in order toallow the eNodeB to efficiently manage RACH preamble resources andavoiding too many PRACH transmissions within one TTI.

Another situation where multiple (consecutive) RACH transmissions mayoccur is when a user equipment is scheduled for data transmissions onseveral uplink component carriers belonging to different TA groups thatare not time aligned (this might be because of inactivity over a longerperiod).

Furthermore, in another exemplary situation, a user equipment may berequired to instantly time align a component carrier upon activation. Inthis case, when a user equipment receives an activation command forseveral component carriers belonging to more than one TA group and theseTA groups are currently not time aligned, the user equipment needs toperform RACH procedures for all these TA groups simultaneously.

Therefore, according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, theuser equipment may need to perform multiple RACH proceduressimultaneously so that the additional delay that would be induced byperforming the RACH procedures consecutively is reduced. The aim is toapproach the delay time of a single RACH procedure, hence the delaycaused by the additional RACH procedures should be minimized.

According to an exemplary implementation, the user equipment increases atransmit power for performing the RACH preamble transmission so as tominimize probability of retransmission.

The PRACH power [dBm] is determined by a user equipment as follows:P _(PRACH) _(c) (i)=min{P _(0_PRACH) −PL(i)+(N−1)Δ_(RACH)+Δ_(Preamble),P _(MAX)}

For finding optimal power setting for P_(PRACH) a user equipment hasseveral options as described below.

One implementation of the invention is to increase P_(0_PRACH) whenmultiple uplink component carriers with PRACH opportunity are aggregatedby the user equipment, In this context it may be advantageous, if theeNodeB signals different offset values, e.g. a first offset valueP_(0_PRACH) and a second offset value P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) , to userequipment. The two offset values may be configured per user equipment.The first offset value P_(0_PRACH) may be used when user equipment onlyaggregates one component carrier with a PRACH opportunity. This wouldthen be the primary cell.

The second offset P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) has higher power than thefirst offset P_(0_PRACH) in order to increase probability to succeedwith initial PRACH transmission and to reduce delay that would beintroduced when PRACH would have to be retransmitted. The second offsetP_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) may be applied in case the user equipmentaggregates multiple component carriers and multiple RACH procedures areto be performed.

In this case the user equipment determines PRACH power [dBm] as:P _(PRACH) _(c) (i)=min{P _(0_PRACH) _(multiple)−PL(i)+(NT−1)Δ_(RACH)+Δ_(Preamble) ,P _(MAX)}

In an alternative implementation to signaling the offset P_(0_PRACH)_(multiple) user equipment selects a predefined higher value (i.e. thenext higher value out of the values possible forpreambleInitialReceivedTargetedPower as specified in section 6.2.2 3GPPTS 36.331, “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); RadioResource Control (RRC); protocol specification”, version 10.0.0,available at http://www.3gpp.org and incorporated herein by reference.This could be the next higher value or a predefined n for selecting then^(th) higher value.

In another exemplary embodiment, the value of N in above formula isadjusted such that N is already better suited to the current power andpath loss situation than starting with an initial value of N=1. In casethere has already been a previous RACH procedure on a component carrier,the user equipment reuses the last value of N that has proven successfulin the last RACH preamble transmission to make the initial preambletransmission in the current RACH procedure on that component carrierinstead of using the initial value of 1. In case there was no previousRACH procedure on that component carrier user equipment may start withusing the initial value of 1. This implementation can also be used whenthere is only a single component carrier that offers RACH opportunities.

A further exemplary embodiment of the invention, considers the selectionof the value of N in a situation where the PRACH procedure on an uplinkcomponent carrier is the first PRACH procedure on that uplink componentcarrier, but the user equipment has already performed a previous PRACHprocedure on another uplink component carrier. In this case the userequipment may use the last successful value of N on another componentcarrier and applies it for determining the initial PRACH power for thecomponent carrier with the initial RACH procedure.

Alternatively, since the user equipment always performs a first PRACHaccess on the primary component carrier (i.e the primary cell, PCell)the user equipment may be configured to always refer to the value of Nfrom the last successful PRACH transmission on the primary componentcarrier (PCell) for use as the initial value of N for another PRACHaccess on a different component carrier.

The utilization of N, as described above, may be beneficial in that noadditional parameters need to be specified and user equipment stillapplies a simple rule for determining an improve transmit power settingfor performing a PRACH procedure. Furthermore, when the user equipmentis implemented to use the value of N from the last successful PRACHtransmission on the same component carrier power levels for eachcomponent carrier, each RACH opportunity may be individually adjusted bycombining it with the different implementation as previously presentedor presented in the following.

Another implementation according to a further embodiment of theinvention may include adjusting the power level for the initial PRACHtransmission by introducing an initial parameter Δoffset to be added tothe original formula for determining the PRACH transmit power [dBm] asfollows:P _(PRACH) _(c) (i)=min{P _(0_PRACH)−PL(i)+(N−1)Δ_(RACH)+Δ_(Preamble)+Δoffset_(c) ,P _(MAX)}

In this context, the value Δoffset_(c) can be individually configured bythe eNodeB for each aggregated component carrier c with RACHopportunity. Accordingly, the eNodeB may control the initial RACH powerto be performed by user equipments for each TA group separately.Alternatively, it could be advantageous to provide a first offsetΔoffset_(PCell) for use with RACH procedures on the primary componentcarrier (PCell) and another offset Δoffset_(SCell) for RACH procedureson the secondary cells (SCells). Further, there is also the possibilityto form groups of component carriers with PRACH opportunity that use thevalue of Δoffset which has previously proven successful.

It is important to note that, unless specified otherwise, all of theabove described implementations can also be used in combination.

As described above, currently a RACH procedure is initiated on eNodeBorder (i.e. eNodeB is sending a PDCCH containing a command for UE toinitiate RACH procedure), for instance, upon data arrival in the userequipment that should be sent in the uplink when the uplink carrier isnot time aligned or during handover.

According to another embodiment of the invention, a new trigger forinitiating RACH procedure allows reduction of the overall delay of RACHprocedures, when multiple RACH procedures are possible on the aggregatedcomponent carriers in one user equipment. This trigger is implemented asan activation command for a component carrier that belongs to a TA groupwhich is currently not time aligned. Upon reception of a MAC CEcontaining the activation command, a user equipment sends anacknowledgement (ACK) message in the uplink and waits for a predefinednumber of sub-frames (e.g. two sub-frames) before initiating a RACHprocedure. At this point in time the eNodeB has received the ACK andinherently knows that a user equipment will initiate a RACH procedure.Consequently, the component carrier activation command as transmitted bythe eNodeB may serve as a trigger for starting RACH procedure. Therebythe overall delay of RACH procedures reduces, save the time of anadditional PDCCH transmission that the eNodeB would have sent to userequipment for ordering RACH procedure. As a result, a RACH procedure canstart earlier and the delay is reduced,

In a further exemplary embodiment of the invention, the user equipmentis configured to trigger performing a RACH procedure for all currentlyunaligned TA groups upon arrival of the uplink data in the userequipment. Such a trigger for performing RACH procedures for allcurrently unaligned TA groups enables the eNodeB to quickly schedule allactivated uplink carriers in the user equipment.

An alternative embodiment of the invention suggests that a userequipment is configured to only perform RACH procedures on secondarycomponent carriers (i.e. on component carriers other than the primarycomponent carrier (PCell)) in response to a PDCCH order. In other words,the user equipment is not allowed to perform a RACH procedure on asecondary component carrier (SCell) on it's own volition. This may beadvantageous since eNodeB has full control over RACH procedures onsecondary component carriers (SCells) in a user equipment due to theeNodeB being able to determine an exact point in time and the componentcarrier on which the user equipment starts a RACH procedure.

As already indicated above, another aspect of the invention is thetransmit power adjustment for random access (RACH) procedures based onthe number of RACH procedures required for time aligning plural uplinkcomponent carriers.

Timing advance groups have been introduced to group uplink componentcarriers that experience a similar propagation delay. As a result, aneNodeB is enabled to control a timing advance of all uplink componentcarriers belonging to a same group. For this purpose, the eNodeB couldutilize a single RACH mechanism for initial time alignment, i.e. byperforming the Initial Timing Advance Procedure, and thereaftersubsequently sends timing advance (TA) update commands via MAC controlelements (MAC CEs).

Regarding the implementation of the matching between a MAC controlelement including the TA update command and the respective timingadvance (TA) group there may be several options. For example, thematching between TA groups and MAC control elements including the TAupdate command could be left to the user equipment implementation.Alternatively, an indicator could be provided within the MAC controlelement allowing the user equipment to identify the respective TA groupfrom a received MAC control element comprising the TA update command.Yet another alternative would require the eNodeB to transmit the MACcontrol element including the TA command on at least one of the downlinkcomponent carriers belonging to a respective TA group.

However, even with the implementation of TA groups, the user equipmentmay be bound by restrictions resulting from the definition of the randomaccess (RACH) procedure. As already indicated above, a RACH procedurerequires processing resources and introduces restrictions on uplinktransmissions that can be performed in parallel by a mobile terminal. Inparticular, the restrictions on uplink transmissions that can beperformed in parallel result from a different time alignment between aPRACH uplink transmission (e.g. the transmission of random accesspreamble in steps 801 and 902 as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9) and PUSCHtransmissions as exemplary shown in FIG. 13.

In more detail, PRACH transmissions and PUSCH or PUCCH transmissions usedifferent uplink timing advance (PRACH transmissions are always alignedto the downlink reception timing, where the timing advance (TA) is 0,whereas PUSCH and PUCCH transmissions are only allowed on an uplinkcomponent carrier when the uplink component carrier is time aligned,where the timing advance (TA) is larger than 0). Furthermore, for PRACHtransmissions a different guard time duration is applied. Accordingly,difficulties in regulating an overall transmission power and powerfluctuations in transmit power may occur if PUSCH/PUCCH transmissionsand PRACH transmissions are to be transmitted simultaneously via thesame power amplifier. FIG. 13 is illustrates an exemplary situation inwhich different timings are applied to the PRACH and the PUCCH/PUSCHtransmissions.

To avoid misalignment causing power fluctuations, simultaneous uplinktransmissions should be avoided on uplink component carriers withdifferent timing advance values via a same power amplifier. An exemplaryimplementation of a user equipment meeting the above constraint wouldhave to ensure that all uplink transmissions via a power amplifier wereon uplink component carriers belonging to a same timing advance (TA)group, hence, employing a same timing advance value which would,therefore, imply time synchronous uplink transmissions. The exemplaryuser equipment implementation would also have to refrain from utilizingthis power amplifier for uplink transmissions on uplink componentcarriers with a different timing advance.

Consequently, each timing advance (TA) group is assigned in a userequipment with a separate “own” power amplifier.

This means, that according to an embodiment of the invention for timealigning one or more uplink component carriers, only a required numberof RACH procedures are performed, wherein a transmit power forperforming all of the one or more RACH procedures is determinedaccording to the number of required RACH procedures.

FIG. 17 shows a flow chart corresponding to this embodiment of theinvention. As shown in FIG. 17, a user equipment is configured withuplink component carriers to be time aligned. Before performing any RACHprocedure, the user equipment determines (see step 1701) how many RACHprocedures are required for utilizing the provide number of poweramplifiers in an advantageous manner meeting the above described RACHconstraints. Assuming the number of required RACH procedures to be lowerthan the number of uplink component carriers to be time aligned, theuser equipment saves energy and limits the use of processing resources.

Having determined the number of RACH procedures required, the userequipment determines a transmit power for the RACH preambles of the RACHprocedures (see step 1702). Thereafter, the user equipment performs therequired RACH procedures at the determined transmit power for timealigning the uplink component carriers (see step 1703).

In an exemplary implementation, the user equipment determines a transmitpower for the RACH preambles sent in the required RACH proceduresreutilizing the saved energy from step 1701. In more detail, dividing atotal amount of available transmit power by a smaller number RACHprocedures required (assuming that the number of required RACHprocedures is indeed smaller than the number of uplink componentcarriers to be time aligned) allows the user equipment to perform eachRACH procedure with a higher transmit power.

According to another exemplary implementation, the user equipmentdetermines the transmit power for all required RACH procedures switchingbetween offset P_(0_PRACH) and P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) . Utilizing thefirst offset P_(0_PRACH) when determining the transmit power forperforming a RACH procedure, in case one RACH procedure is required andutilizing the second, higher valued offset P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) , incase multiple RACH procedures are required, allows the user equipment toimprove the success probability when performing each RACH procedure andreducing the delay introduced by the RACH procedures.

According to yet another exemplary implementation, the user equipmentalso determines the transmit power for all required RACH proceduresswitching between offset P_(0_PRACH) and P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple) .However, in this exemplary implementation, the user equipment utilizesthe first offset P_(0_PRACH) when determining the transmit power forperforming a RACH procedure on the primary component carrier (PCell),and utilizes the second, higher valued offset P_(0_PRACH) _(multiple)for RACH procedures on the secondary component carriers (SCells). Asthere may be more than one secondary cell (SCell) an increase intransmit power for performing RACH procedures on secondary cellsimproves the success probability and, hence, reduces the delayintroduced by the RACH procedures.

In a more detailed embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 18,the user equipment determines the number of required RACH proceduresbased on the number of TA groups to which the uplink component carriersbelong and on the TA groups with already time aligned uplink componentcarriers.

First, the user equipment determines for time aligning one or moreuplink component carriers the number of TA groups to which the uplinkcomponent carriers belong (see step 1801). Thereby, the user equipmentcan ensure that at most one RACH procedure is performed for each TAgroup. In case the user equipment is not time aligned with any uplinkcomponent carrier, the number of RACH procedures performed is equal tothe number of TA groups to which the uplink component carriers belong.

Second, the user equipment excludes TA groups with already time aligneduplink component carriers (see step 1802). In more detail, the userequipment excludes from a list of TA groups (e.g. x_(req) TA groups) towhich the uplink component carriers belong those TA groups (e.g.x_(align) TA groups) to which already time aligned uplink componentcarrier belong. In an implementation of this embodiment of theinvention, a user equipment is configured to reuse the timing advancevalue from an already time aligned uplink component carrier for timealigning different uplink component carriers of the same TA group.

Third, the user equipment determines the number of required RACHprocedures as the number of TA groups to which the uplink componentcarriers to be time aligned belong minus the number of TA groups towhich already time aligned uplink component carrier belongm=x_(req)−x_(align) (see step 1803). Excluding TA groups to whichalready time aligned uplink component carrier belong, results in anumber of required RACH procedures and a list of TA groups, to which atleast one of the uplink component carriers belongs and where the userequipment does not have a timing alignment. In other words, the numberof required RACH procedures corresponds to the minimum of RACHprocedures to be performed for time aligning the uplink componentcarriers without making any assumptions on preconfigured or correlatedtiming advance for uplink component carriers.

Thereafter, the user equipment determines a transmit power forperforming the required number of m RACH procedures (see step 1804).This step corresponds to step 1702 of FIG. 17 and may be realized by thesame implementations as suggested with respect to FIG. 17.

Then, the user equipment performs the required m RACH procedures at thedetermined transmit power for time aligning the uplink componentcarriers (see step 1703)

Considering the above restrictions, one advantageous implementation ofthe user equipment of the invention a limits the random access preambletransmissions to only one per timing advance group so that only onePRACH preamble transmission is allowed for the uplink component carriersbelonging to a same timing advance group. On which of the one or moreuplink component carriers belonging to a same TA group the userequipment performs a RACH procedure may be configured by the eNodeB.Another alternative implementation may leave the selection of uplinkcomponent carrier performing the RACH procedure to the user equipment,wherein the user equipment chooses one of the uplink component carriersbelonging to one TA group to transmit PRACH preambles.

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary configuration where a user equipment hasaggregated five uplink component carriers among which four uplinkcomponent carriers are activated. All uplink component carriers belongto a same TA group, i.e. are subject to a similar propagation delay. Inthis exemplary configuration, a RACH procedure is performed on the firstuplink component carrier (which may correspond to the primary componentcarrier/PCell). This exemplary configuration is compliant with carrieraggregation as described in Release 10 of the 3GPP standard.

FIG. 15 shows an exemplary configuration where a user equipmentaggregates uplink component carriers from different geographicallocations (e.g from an eNodeB and a Remote Radio Head) and differentfrequency bands. The eNodeB provides uplink component carriers 1, 2 and3 and groups the uplink component carriers 1, 2 and 3 in timing advancegroup 1. Uplink component carriers 1, 2 and 3 experience a similarpropagation delay. Remote Radio Head provides uplink component carriers4 and 5 at a different geographic position and on a different frequencyband. These component carriers experience a different propagation delaycompared to the first three component carriers. To comply with thesepropagation delay differences, uplink component carriers 4 and 5 aresupplied with a different timing advance and grouped in timing advancegroup 2.

Each of the timing advance groups 1 and 2 is associated with a differentpower amplifier to meet the constraints in terms of allowed RACHprocedures as described above.

In the timing advance group 1 with the primary component carrier/PCell,RACH procedure is allowed on the primary component carrier/PCell and inthe other timing advance group 2 any uplink component carrier couldoffer opportunities to send RACH preamble. Accordingly, an exemplaryimplementation of the embodiment is that the user equipment to chooseone of the uplink component carriers of the timing advance group onwhich RACH procedures are performed. An alternative implementation ofthis embodiment adapts the eNodeB so that the eNodeB can configure onwhich of the uplink component carriers the user equipment performs RACHprocedures. In the exemplary configuration shown in FIG. 15 uplinkcomponent carrier 4 is used by the user equipment for performing RACHprocedures.

In the examples above, a bandwidth aggregation scenario has beenassumed, where the mobile terminal receives multiple uplink resourceassignments for different component carriers within the same TTI. Theconcept of introducing a priority respectively priority order for uplinkassignments can be equally applied for the case of spatial multiplexing.Spatial multiplexing denotes a MIMO technique or MIMO transmission mode,where more than one transport block can be transmitted at the same timeand on the same frequency using multiple reception and transmissionantennas. Separation of the different transport blocks is done by meansof signal processing at the receiver and/or transmitter side.Essentially the transport blocks are transmitted on different MIMOchannels respectively MIMO layers but on the same component carrier.

Using spatial multiplexing—which is considered for LTE-A uplink—theuplink resource assignments allocate an uplink resource for MIMO layerson a component carriers. Hence, there may be multiple uplink resourceassignments for individual MIMO layers on one component carrier. Similarto the introduction of a priority order for component carriers, also forMIMO scenarios a priority or priority order of the uplink resourceassignments for the MIMO layers is used in the generation of thetransport blocks. The priority order of the MIMO layers could bepre-configured (e.g. during radio bearer establishment) or could besignaled by physical layer, MAC or RRC signaling as mentionedpreviously.

Hence, assuming a single component carrier system—such as LTE Rel. 8—theuplink resource assignments for the individual MIMO layers of thecomponent carrier could be accumulated to a virtual transport block anda joint logical channel procedure could be performed on the virtualtransport block as described before. The content of the virtualtransport block needs to be then divided to the individual transportblocks according to the priority order of their assignments and thetransport blocks are transmitted via the respective antennas of themobile terminal.

Similarly also a parallelization of joint logical channel procedures ispossible, by operating on transport blocks, respectively uplink resourceassignments for MIMO layers instead of transport blocks, respectivelyuplink resource assignments for component carriers.

Furthermore, the concepts of the invention outlined herein may also beused in systems that provide bandwidth aggregation (i.e. multiplecomponent carriers are configured) and spatial multiplexing. In thiscase the uplink resource assignment grants a resource on the uplink fortransmitting a transport block on a given MIMO layer and componentcarrier. Also for this system design the joint logical channelprocedures can be used in a similar fashion as discussed above.

In this context, please note that there may be a “joint” priority orderfor uplink resource assignments on a per MIMO layer and per componentcarrier basis, or alternatively, there may be separate priority orders,i.e. a priority order for MIMO layers (independent from the componentcarriers) and a priority order for the component carriers (independentfrom the component carriers). Third, there is also the possibility thatspatial multiplexing is used but MIMO layers are assumed to be equalpriority (so that there is no priority order for MIMO layers), howeverthere is a priority order for the component carriers.

In the first case, where there is a “joint” prioritization based on MIMOlayer and component carrier, the (joint) logical channel prioritizationprocedures can be reused to generate the transport blocks for theindividual component carriers and MIMO layers.

In the second and third case, according to an embodiment of theinvention, the uplink resource assignments of the MIMO layers are firstaccumulated (e.g. according to the MIMO layer priorities, if available)per component carrier, and subsequently the obtained virtual transportsblocks of the component carriers are accumulated according to theirpriority order to perform a (joint) logical channel prioritization onthe virtual transport block obtained from the component carrier-wiseaccumulation.

When having filled the virtual transport block obtained from thecomponent carrier-wise accumulation with data of the logical channels,same is again divided in virtual transport blocks per component carrier,and subsequently the virtual transport blocks per component carrier arefurther divided into individual transport blocks for the respective MIMOlayers in each component carrier.

In a further embodiment of the invention, in the third case where thereis no priority order of the MIMO layers, there may be one uplinkresource assignment sent per component carrier that covers all MIMOlayers. Accordingly, in this case the accumulation of uplink grants forthe MIMO layers in the procedure above can be omitted. Nevertheless, thevirtual transport blocks per component carrier obtained by divisionneeds to be further divided to transport blocks for the MIMO layers ineach component carrier—e.g. assigning equal shares of the virtualtransport blocks per component carrier to each MIMO layer fortransmission.

In some embodiment of the invention, the concepts of the invention havebeen described with respect to an improved 3GPP LTE system, where thereis one component carrier configured on the air interface. The conceptsof the invention may also be equally applied to a 3GPP LTE-A (LTE-A)system presently discussed in the 3GPP.

Another embodiment of the invention relates to the implementation of theabove described various embodiments using hardware and software. It isrecognized that the various embodiments of the invention may beimplemented or performed using computing devices (processors). Acomputing device or processor may for example be general purposeprocessors, digital signal processors (DSP), application specificintegrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) orother programmable logic devices, etc. The various embodiments of theinvention may also be performed or embodied by a combination of thesedevices.

Further, the various embodiments of the invention may also beimplemented by means of software modules, which are executed by aprocessor or directly in hardware. Also a combination of softwaremodules and a hardware implementation may be possible. The softwaremodules may be stored on any kind of computer readable storage media,for example RAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, registers, hard disks,CD-ROM, DVD, etc.

It should be further noted that the individual features of the differentembodiments of the invention may individually or in arbitrarycombination be subject matter to another invention.

It would be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that numerousvariations and/or modifications may be made to the present invention asshown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit orscope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodimentsare, therefore, to be considered in all respects to be illustrative andnot restrictive.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An integrated circuit configured to controloperation of a terminal apparatus, the integrated circuit comprising:circuitry, which, in operation, controls transmitting a transport blockat a power for physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission overa PUSCH of a first component carrier; transmitting a random accesspreamble at a power for physical random access channel (PRACH)transmission over a PRACH of a second component carrier; responsive to atotal transmission power exceeding a maximum output power configured forthe terminal apparatus PMAX, adjusting the power for PUSCH transmissionso that the adjusted total transmission power does not exceed PMAX at anoverlapped portion of the PUSCH transmission in a first subframe of thefirst component carrier and the PRACH transmission in a second subframeof the second component carrier, the second subframe being a subframewith a time offset from the first subframe along a time axis, whereinthe power for PRACH transmission is kept unadjusted; and receiving arandom access response to the transmitted random access preamble.
 2. Theintegrated circuit according to claim 1, wherein the circuitry, inoperation, controls transmitting control information at a power for aphysical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission over a PUCCH; andadjusting at least one of the power for PUSCH transmission and the powerfor PUCCH transmission.
 3. The integrated circuit according to claim 2,wherein only the power for PUSCH transmission is adjusted.
 4. Theintegrated circuit according to claim 2, wherein the total transmissionpower is adjusted in a priority order of the PRACH, the PUCCH and thePUSCH.
 5. The integrated circuit according to claim 1, wherein the PRACHtransmission is initiated by a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)order.
 6. The integrated circuit according to claim 1, wherein whentransmission of the random access preamble is not requested and aphysical uplink control channel (PUCCH) is transmitted simultaneouslywith the PUSCH, the circuitry controls setting the power for PRACHtransmission to zero; and adjusting the power for PUSCH transmission sothat the adjusted total transmission power including a power for PUCCHtransmission on the first component carrier does not exceed PMAX.
 7. Theintegrated circuit according to claim 1, wherein the power for PUSCHtransmission is adjusted per subframe.
 8. The integrated circuitaccording to claim 1, wherein when a plurality of PUSCHs are configuredon the first component carrier, the power for PUSCH transmission isadjusted by reducing respective powers for the plurality of PUSCHs. 9.The integrated circuit according to claim 1, comprising: at least oneinput coupled to the circuitry, wherein the at least one input, inoperation, inputs data; and at least one output coupled to the circuity,wherein the at least one output, in operation, outputs data.
 10. Anintegrated circuit configured to control operation of a terminalapparatus, the integrated circuit comprising: transmission circuitry,which, in operation, controls transmission of a transport block at apower for physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission over aPUSCH of a first component carrier; and transmission of a random accesspreamble at a power for physical random access channel (PRACH)transmission over a PRACH of a second component carrier; controlcircuitry, which is coupled to the transmission circuitry and which,responsive to a total transmission power exceeding a maximum outputpower configured for the terminal apparatus PMAX, adjusts the power forPUSCH transmission so that the adjusted total transmission power doesnot exceed PMAX at an overlapped portion of the PUSCH transmission in afirst subframe of the first component carrier and the PRACH transmissionin a second subframe of the second component carrier, the secondsubframe being a subframe with a time offset from the first subframealong a time axis, wherein the power for PRACH transmission is keptunadjusted; and reception circuitry, which is coupled to the controlcircuitry and which, in operation, receives a random access response tothe transmitted random access preamble.
 11. The integrated circuitaccording to claim 10, wherein the transmission circuitry, in operation,controls transmission of control information at a power for a physicaluplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission over a PUCCH; and thecontrol circuitry, in operation, adjusts at least one of the power forPUSCH transmission and the power for PUCCH transmission.
 12. Theintegrated circuit according to claim 11, wherein the control circuitryadjusts only the power for PUSCH transmission.
 13. The integratedcircuit according to claim 11, wherein the control circuitry adjusts thetotal transmission power in a priority order of the PRACH, the PUCCH andthe PUSCH.
 14. The integrated circuit according to claim 11, whereintransmission of the PRACH is initiated by a physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH) order.
 15. The integrated circuit according to claim 10,wherein when transmission of the random access preamble is not requestedand a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) is transmittedsimultaneously with the PUSCH, the control circuitry: sets the power forPRACH transmission to zero; and adjusts the power for PUSCH transmissionso that the adjusted total transmission power including a power forPUCCH transmission on the first component carrier does not exceed PMAX.16. The integrated circuit according to claim 10, wherein the controlcircuitry adjusts the power for PUSCH transmission per subframe.
 17. Theintegrated circuit according to claim 10, wherein when a plurality ofPUSCHs are configured on the first component carrier, the controlcircuitry adjusts the power for PUSCH transmission by reducingrespective powers for the plurality of PUSCHs.